The War of the Abyss
by Kyrrlatur
Summary: Somewhat disturbing, though humor is present. Everyone's favorite Abyssal One meets Naruto. When you stare at the abyss, she will stare back at you and giggle. Naruto/Riful pairing. Some gore and dismemberment. Naruto/Claymore crossover.
1. The Meeting

Author's Note: So... I kind of ran across Claymore again, and it just popped at me that Riful was really misunderstood, to me at least. Since I seem to be on a Naruto crossover spree, might as well make it Naruto as well.

"Talking"

'_Thinking'_

"**Technique"**

* * *

The Meeting

Konohagakure no Sato (The Village Hidden within the Leaves) was a rather beautiful village, considering that it was a ninja village. Unlike Kiri (Mist) who flaunted their killing prowess and generally contained an atmosphere of blood lust and anxiety, Konoha radiated the kind of feeling you'd expect from a distant relative's house. Unfamiliar, but welcoming and warm.

Of course, even the welcoming atmosphere of the village will dim significantly in times of war, or in sections of the village that are politely ignored by the majority of the populace. The slums, darker sections of the village, and anywhere where the general 'low-lifes' appear are shunted off to the side. Like housewives anxious about how the public views them, the village places a thin veneer of something pretty over the darker aspects of their life.

One who lived in the no-mans-land between veneer and slum was Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto. A slightly smaller child than others from his orphanage, at an early age he understood something very important (as it had to be, if it was stressed as much as it was); he was unwanted. It was nothing blatant (as the villagers tried to be discreet, not wanting others to see that even they could be capable of cruelty, and thus shatter their 'nice, perfect Konoha' exterior) but it was enough. Cold, unappetizing food was served at mealtimes, regardless of the other orphans getting at least lukewarm meals. When asking a question, he would be answered with a 'look' (as well as sometimes a stern talking to later on) that conveyed that he was to be unseen, unheard, and unwanted.

After he was 'adopted' by the Hokage (in reality, the elderly Sarutobi simply bought him an apartment and gave him an orphan's stipend to buy necessities), the prices on all goods experienced bouts of inflation as soon as he was seen.

He noticed this, and understood it somewhat. The others believed something was wrong with him, like he was sick, and didn't want to catch it. He could comprehend that. Whenever he asked the Hokage, though, the Sandaime would attempt to change the subject discreetly, though the blonde child caught it and simply didn't wish to press for information.

He sometimes wondered if it was his appearance, but that couldn't be it. He wasn't the only blonde with blue eyes in Konoha, as the entire Yamanaka clan had those characteristics. Granted, his hair was spikier than their flowing locks, but that shouldn't have mattered, as other orphans had spiky hair. He thought maybe it could have been the odd 3 scars on each cheek that looked like whiskers, but that also couldn't be it, as he remembered seeing children (not orphans, though) with odd facial markings that looked like upside down triangles being treated well.

He finally applied copious amounts of childhood logic and came to the conclusion that he was alright, but others didn't think he was. And for that, he ignored them for the most part. He did, however, understand that, as he was in a ninja village where passive-aggressive hostility could turn to physical blows in the blink of an eye, he needed to be trained to defend himself.

Thus, at a young age he began watching from the shadows as others trained, rarely getting caught after he realized that adults tended to only see what they wanted to see, unless it was blatantly obvious. Knowing that nobody ever wanted him to be seen, he used that to his advantage, and was able to see some of the exercises needed to be genin.

The Hokage was too enthralled with his bureaucratic position to pay much attention to his mental and physical state of being, only capable of taking quick glimpses at his life through the scrying crystal in his office. He, too, was susceptible to the phenomenon of 'See no Evil, Hear no Evil'. While obvious to an outside observer that the blonde was slowly starving and his growth was going to be stunted, the Hokage simply wanted to see that he was still living, and thus didn't quite comprehend that his charge was malnourished.

At age five, Naruto had had enough; he needed to escape the passive-aggressive hostility for awhile. Feeling the odd tingle he got whenever the Hokage spied on him, he waited it out, knowing the old man didn't do it more than once a day, before taking off into the forests that gave Konoha its name.

* * *

In the Konoha Forest…

Naruto walked around for a bit, enjoying the feel of nature around him, and smiled slowly as he realized that this place could be his sanctuary. No one would think to look for him here!

He gave a childish giggle and took off running, his acute memory able to keep track of where he went so that he wouldn't get lost.

When he came upon a cave that looked deserted, he decided he should start his training in there.

* * *

Inside the cave…

As he wandered in, he noted that the ceiling had quite a few holes in it that allowed sunlight to pour in lances of golden light, motes of dust floating serenely bathed within.

He heard a feminine giggle from further in, and went to investigate with the curiosity only a small child can muster.

He found a young girl, no older than twelve, dancing in and around a particularly wide array of sunbeams. She was clothed in a short pink sleeveless sundress, and was barefoot. Her dark brown hair reached to the top of her shoulderblades in back, and equal length down the front, though the strangest part was that the locks of hair weren't tapered, but instead ended very cleanly and levelly, giving the appearance of her hair being of ribbons instead of hair.

Her eyes were a light brown, filled with equal parts childish whimsy, and intelligence and wisdom that could only come from age.

Oddly, the most striking part of her appearance was that she was slightly transparent.

Believing her to be a figment of his imagination, he simply waved at her (as it was nice to be polite when meeting other people, even ones you don't believe are real) before beginning his training, doing situps and pushups.

Unbeknownst to him, the girl had stopped dancing in the sun and was watching him with a curious gaze.

As he finished doing situps and pushups until he wasn't sure if he could continue the movements (roughly thirty of each at his young age), he started trying to replicate a hand-to-hand style that he saw a weird jounin in green spandex using on a training post. He noticed it did a lot of damage to the post, and so he thought it'd be a good thing to train in.

As he shakily tried to replicate the katas, he heard a soft voice behind him.

"Your body won't fit well with that style."

He turned around to see that his imaginary friend was seated on a ledge behind him, bouncing her heels lightly off the rock. Her fingers were threaded together underneath her chin as she looked down on him with a smile.

Knowing that figments of imagination don't have information that the original doesn't already have, Naruto looked to her with child-like wonder in his eyes.

"You're real?"

The girl's face formed a light frown, oddly making the blonde feel as if she should never have to frown, before the girl nodded to herself and began smiling again.

"Mhm! My name is Riful!"

Naruto sat down cross legged below the small ledge and smiled up at her, beaming all his teeth in a grin before introducing himself as well and asking her a question.

"Why are you all see-through?"

The girl quirked her head to the side, before countering his question with one of her own.

"I don't know. Where are we?"

Naruto gave her an odd look before explaining that, according to the Hokage, they were in the Land of Fire, just outside Konoha. The young girl got a contemplative look on her face before asking if that was anywhere in the west. The response shocked her.

"Um… Hokage-ojii-san pointed at the middle-right part of the map… is that the west?"

She blinked rapidly before shaking her head in the negative, before he reiterated his original question, albeit slightly altered.

"So what's it like being see-through?"

She gave him a slight smile before replying, returning to bouncing her heels off the stone.

"I don't know. I wasn't see-through before… I have to go now, but I'll be back in a few days!"

Before his eyes, Riful faded from sight, her chiming laughter the last to disappear. He hoped she would be friends with him, as he was incredibly lonely.

* * *

The days continued like that, with Naruto going back to the cave nearly every day to train, though he did give up on the Goken style. Riful would appear every now and then, and at one point asked for a map, which Naruto brought to her. She disappeared early that day, though the last thing she said before disappearing was 'I think I got it!'

The next day, she was there waiting for him, her hands clasped behind her back and rocking on her heels. He could tell she was happy about something, but he wasn't quite sure. When he asked her what she found out, she gave him a soft smile before explaining it in terms he would understand.

"It's simple! I come here while sleeping in my world. What you see is just a… representation, or something that stands for something else, of my mind. You see?"

This immediately provoked a barrage of inquisitive questions about her world, which she discreetly deflected, not wanting her new playmate scared off yet. After all, it got boring with just Duph around, as the lug wasn't good for much besides physical labor, so she could use somewhat intelligent company for awhile. And yes, even children were smarter than Duph at times.

That day, though, she helped him with his training, by pointing out that he wouldn't be big enough when he grew to use the Goken correctly. When he asked her how she knew that, she got an odd look on her face before saying she had lived long enough to know how the human body grows. He filed that away to ask about it later and instead asked her what she'd recommend he do instead.

"Um… something fast and flexible. Your body will grow to be thin but wiry, so it'll be good for dodging."

She had to leave early that day, her eyes flashing a brilliant red color when she wasn't facing him as she said she had to go.

* * *

The next day, he asked the Hokage for pointers on flexibility. The Sandaime got an odd look on his face, as he remembered Orochimaru asking nearly the same question quite a few decades in the past, before he told Naruto of some stretches that would help.

When he made it to the cave, he saw Riful staring at her hand with a thoughtful look on her face. Oddly, her hand was stained purple. When questioned, she replied in a dreamy tone that her body affected her mind projection, as she had forgotten to wash the blood off when she killed the youma that was bothering her. This, instead of scaring him off like she had expected, provoked an odd question.

"You kill demons?"

Riful gave him a slight smile before nodding, saying that the demon had come to her cave and disturbed her, so she had killed it. The blonde's response was quite… exuberant.

"Cool! What're they like? I've only heard stories about them. Is it true that they're all 'mindless killing machines with no remorse' like the matron said?"

Riful's face fell into a slight frown, once again provoking a strange feeling of dread in Naruto's stomach, before she cocked her head to the side and countered his question with another question.

"Don't you know? I can sense that you have youki, demon energy, somewhere inside you."

Oddly, this didn't cause a psychotic breakdown, but instead made the blonde contemplative.

"Is that why the village doesn't want me…? But I don't remember ever being a demon…"

Riful was quite curious about this phenomenon, and offered to help him. When asked what she would do, she replied that, since she's a projection of her mind, she should be able to go into his to find out. He agreed, a little warily, but warned her off changing things in his head without asking him first. After all, he didn't want to wake up and feel like Gai, having urges to ramble about youth and whatnot.

She laughed lightly before diving headfirst into his body.

* * *

Inside Naruto's Mind…

Naruto was quite curious when he appeared (also transparent) next to Riful inside a sewer-like corridor. The water on the floor was simply splashes of clear liquid, not giving off any scent at all, though the walls were cracked and yellowed with lack of care.

Riful immediately sensed a secondary presence within Naruto's body besides Naruto and herself, and felt the hatred and malice in the youki. She led Naruto along the winding passages until they got to a high-ceiling room with a set of vertical bars creating a gate and cutting the room in half. Behind the gate, two bloody crimson eyes glared hatefully at the two trespassers, and a wide maw of pointed teeth grinned maliciously at the two visitors. Its booming voice rattled the bars as it demanded the identity of who dared to enter its domain.

Naruto was trembling a little in fear, only to begin shaking as crimson youki lit up the darkness behind the gate, revealing the Kyuubi in all its glory. Riful was notably unaffected, gazing at the demon fox as a scientist would an intriguing specimen. Her whimsical voice spoke in the silence, dumbfounding the demon fox at her impudence.

"I'm Riful, and this is Naruto. If I'm right, he's your container, your prison."

The fox bellowed in rage as the insignificant human dared to point out its current degrading position as a _prisoner _of a _child_. Naruto, however, had learned something important from this and spoke up just enough to be heard by Riful, though the fox would have heard as well if it wasn't roaring in rage.

"So the villagers hate me… because the Kyuubi is my prisoner? The fox that almost destroyed the village when I was born?"

Riful nodded lightly, before frowning in annoyance at the Kyuubi. The fox suddenly felt a shudder of dread and terror run down its spine at how unnatural the frown looked on the little girl's face. Riful walked up to the gates, and through the bars, disregarding Naruto's cries for her to not go in there, as the demon fox was supposedly the strongest of the bijuu.

The fox, however, was ecstatic. Finally he'd prove that he wasn't to be trifled with, and he'd start by torturing the blonde brat's little girlfriend!

He stabbed her in the stomach, impaling her through the gut with a single claw, horrifying Naruto. However, no blood leaked from the wound. Instead, thin lines traced vertically on her body, before she fell into ribbons, each ribbon a shade of metallic jet black.

From the ribbons arose a monstrosity of nightmares. A female adult humanoid torso and head, crafted out of the ribbons, and complete with a head of hair and breasts. Her arms seemed to unravel near the ends, becoming more ribbons. Her lower body was completely nonexistent, being held aloft by the threads alone. The creature's eyes had no iris or sclera, merely sockets filled with glowing red light. She was beautiful, in a hauntingly dangerous way. The creature-woman ran a hand through her hair as she ascended to the Kyuubi's height, before speaking in clear tones.

"I am Riful, Abyssal One of the West, former rank 1 Claymore."

Naruto was alternately shocked and mesmerized by Riful's true form, oddly wondering what an Abyssal One or a Claymore was. He'd have to ask her about it later, as he covered his eyes from what happened next.

The Kyuubi, sensing enormous youki from the intruder, actually felt true fear for the first time in its life. However, it was unable to act, as the metallic ribbons that comprised the entirety of Riful thrashed forward, flaying the fox into small strips before they changed direction and made sure that no chunk of fox was big enough to regenerate.

The Kyuubi didn't even have time to scream.

What was left was merely a puddle of flesh, fur, and purple blood, as well as a large reservoir of youki left without a soul to control it. Riful gave a light laugh before exiting the bars, descending to her child form once again without a spot of blood on her. She was fascinated that Naruto didn't seem to show fear of her, and instead was more interested in her as if he had found something incredible.

* * *

They left the mindscape in silence, and Naruto awoke immediately, questions firing.

"What's an Abyssal One? What's a Claymore? How'd you kill the Kyuubi? Why was it in my head? Was that a seal on the gate?"

The young girl (in appearance alone) gave a soft laugh before attempting to answer his questions in order.

"A Claymore is a woman (or man) who's half human, half demon, and is sent out to slay demons in my world. An Abyssal One is a rank 1 Claymore who has gone past their limits, and has 'awakened', becoming a demon. It's pretty simple. We're not mindless, but some of the weaker youma are. I'm not sure about killing machines… some are mean and some just want to play, like me! I chopped up the Kyuubi by shifting to my Abyssal form and mincing him to bits too small to regenerate. I think that the Kyuubi, instead of being killed by the Yondaime, was actually sealed in you instead."

Naruto was almost vibrating with excitement, as he was friends with a really cool person! Something penetrated his exuberance, though, and he tilted his head in thought before voicing his thoughts.

"Um… if the Kyuubi was sealed inside me… could I become a Claymore like you used to be?"

Riful, eyes gleaming at the anticipation of something interesting, said it would be possible. She outlined that, in her world, the Organization implanted remains of youma into young girls to create Claymores, but that was only to start the youki generation. Since Naruto already had the youki, all she would have to do is break the seal and let it trickle into his system, gradually changing him from human to half human half demon.

According to her, the change would be complete in about five years, as it would take awhile for the entirety of Kyuubi's youki to be absorbed, as well as prepping his body to be able to use the youki without corrupting or harming itself from the volatile energy.

When he asked her to start the process, she gave him a light laugh before tapping his stomach and letting her youki flare very briefly, her eyes intrigued as she watched the complex seal design with hundreds of different squiggles and other lines that must have taken hours to create simply dissolve.

With his new friend becoming a bit more open with him, as well as a new way to protect himself in mind, Naruto was ecstatic as he left the cave that day, even hugging the phantasmal projection of Riful, somehow able to hug her even through her insubstantial nature.

* * *

Over the next year or so, Naruto got Riful to open up a little bit more about her world, and how she was the youngest rank 1 Claymore ever, as well as being the rank 1 of the first class of all female fighters.

She outlined how the Organization had several different 'styles' to teach Claymores based upon their survival instinct as well as their body type. Rank 1 Claymores were required to at least learn the theory, weaknesses, and strengths of all the styles taught in case they had to hunt down a rogue Claymore. The Organization didn't want their most powerful fighter to die in combat due to not knowing her opponent's style, now would they? She had been a defensive Claymore, which led her Awakened form to being incredibly hard to damage, as her will to survive surpassed her will to kill others. She typically avoided strikes, though, instead of taking them and regenerating like other defensive Claymores.

After analyzing Naruto, she was in quite a conundrum. He was defensive, as his survival instinct matched or even surpassed her own, but his posture and body type _screamed _'agile offensive'. Deciding to play with the rules a bit, she taught him the agile offensive fighting style, an acrobatic style that avoided enemy strikes while dismembering them to prevent retribution. Due to the lack of a claymore (the sword, not the person), though, she trained him in the hand to hand version as well as the foot movements. He took to it like a fish to water, causing her to giggle in delight as he soaked up the lessons.

* * *

At the age of six, Naruto began manifesting the first physical characteristics of a Claymore. His blue eyes drained of color, becoming a silver hue, and his hair began to drain of color as well. None noticed, though the Hokage did a double take once or twice, but since his eyes weren't the bloody crimson of the Kyuubi, the Sandaime didn't believe it was detrimental to the boy's health. After all, perhaps Minato or Kushina's eyes did this as a child, too? Never know what could happen in a ninja village.

Naruto began to lose his appetite around this time, leading him to actually grow _better_ than before because he didn't need as many nutrients, leading his meager food supplies to actually _heal _the malnourishment.

* * *

It was when Naruto was 7, and working on his movements of the Claymore style (though notably lacking the sword itself) that one of the more dangerous topics emerged in conversation.

"What do youma and Abyssal Ones eat?"

The whimsical reply of 'humans!' made him stumble in the middle of a balancing exercise, causing Riful to giggle. When Naruto asked her to reiterate, her smile dimmed a bit and elaborated.

"Youma eat humans like humans eat rabbits! The bones get stuck in my teeth, though, so most youma only eat the soft parts. Normal youma eat like humans, needing to eat two to three times a day, but Awakened Beings like me can go over a month without hurting for lack of food!"

Naruto accepted this quite well, as the analogy was quite accurate. It also prompted him to wonder what rabbits and other small animals see humans as, since human beings capture and eat them, and describe youma who do the same to humans as flesh eating monsters. Quite an eye opening experience.

Riful was noticeably more comfortable around him afterward when he didn't run away screaming.

* * *

Around the age of 8, Naruto began his youki control and usage training. Riful gave him some examples of what defensive (and offensive, as his paradoxical nature intrigued her) Claymores used their youki for. Obviously, since no one else used youki in the Elemental Countries, attempting to sense emotions and flow of youki of others wasn't going to do much of anything. He could barely sense Riful's, even when standing right next to her, showing that she had amazing control. Using bursts of youki, he was able to create afterimages, but they hurt his legs from the bursts, and he couldn't do it much before he had to rest, unless he were to awaken from too much youki channeling. Neither Riful nor Naruto were sure what would happen if he Awakened while surplus youki was still contained in the remains of the seal, but they were both sure it wouldn't be pretty.

Riful had the most _interesting _theory that he would explode into bits and pieces that would rain all around the Land of Fire if he were to awaken too early, which got both of them to laugh at the image.

Riful's whimsical, childlike view had begun to rub off on Naruto, desensitizing him to violence and gore. Many would call Riful a sociopathic monster, but from her point of view, everything made sense. She had power, lots of power, but she thought adults were stupid. They spent so much effort worrying and caring about every little thing. She just enjoyed simpler things in life, like playing with others, though she did know that if someone were to threaten her, they wouldn't stay alive for much longer, and she would do as much as she could to survive if confronted with a real threat.

She had knowledge and wisdom, and did impart it upon others as well as use it to better her survival (as she knew Isley was starting something up in the North), but really didn't care much besides that. She just liked to have fun.

Naruto thought she had perfect logic, and soon began to behave somewhat like her as well. Life seemed much more logical when you removed the wool from your eyes, acknowledging the good and the bad, as well as everything in between. However, dwelling too much on any of the three would do nothing but harm in the long run.

* * *

By age 10, Naruto had become half human and half demon. His eyes a deep silver color, and his hair somewhat like sun bleached straw. He was coming along quite well in his training, and was able to replicate quite a few offensive _and _defensive skills of Claymores, much to Riful's interest. He seemed to be somewhat unspecialized in anything except speed. He was unable to do extreme offensive or extreme defensive skills, such as a variation of Quick Sword or regenerating entire limbs. However, they were able to reattach that arm, so no harm done.

As she grew closer to the blonde puzzle, Riful began to reassess her taking Duph as a lover and lackey. The former rank 3, while tough certainly, was quite lewd and rude to people visiting her cave. Plus… she mused that perhaps Duph had been hit in the head a few too many times in his lifetime, as he was quite… dim. The clingy behavior he exhibited, breaking down and almost _bawling _if she gave any hint of leaving him was slightly irritating her, as well. She'd lose a valuable subordinate if she left him, though, as she would have to eliminate him to prevent information leak…

Making up her mind, she bid farewell to Naruto at the end of another day (or night, as she was sleeping at the time) and awoke in her familiar cave.

* * *

As she raised herself off her bed, her eyes flashed bright crimson, and called out in a singsong voice through the cave complex.

"Duph… let's play a game."

The monstrous humanoid man (as he wasn't powerful enough to withdraw to his human form) poked his head out of an adjoining room to look in to see what game they were going to be playing. He felt his nightmares of 'the breakup' had come true when a jet black metallic ribbon slashed just past his head, leaving a gouge in the armored plating on his shoulder. He turned and ran down the winding corridors, orange-gold eyes tearing up as his mind tried to come to terms that Riful was finally getting rid of him.

If he wasn't quite so delusional or dim witted, he would've realized that she hadn't shown any real affection for him. He was simply one of the very few that could accept her without breaking, and she took what she could get.

Three ribbons sliced through the wall, nearly bisecting his arm as he ran past another corner, too absorbed in his combination mental angst-rant and blubbering apologies both in his head and out his mouth to pay attention that his life was in danger.

A lighthearted voice sang out through the darkness as Riful began unleashing a few more of her threads in an attempt to reduce the amount of hiding places. In reality, she could have obliterated him from the get-go, but this was more fun!

"Ooh, I just love games like this! Hide and Seek!"

His mind breaking at last (not from the sheer terror of being chased, even if only playfully, by an Abyssal One, but instead from his mind _finally_ coming to terms with the fact that _she was breaking up with him_), Duph sat down behind a boulder, hugging his knees to his chest and wailing while rocking back and forth.

Two bright red eyes situated within an unforgettable jet black face appeared from above the boulder, Riful's body looming over Duph's own grotesque height. Dozens of threads enveloped him, boulder and all, before shredding them like tissue paper caught in a blender.

Peering over her shoulder, Riful contemplated the state of affairs of her last place of residence for the past few decades. The cave complex was almost in ruins from her playing Hide and Seek with Duph (though she reigned supreme as the winner). Giving a mental shrug, she manipulated her ribbons to weave into an expanding sphere of slicing edges, decimating the already ruined remains of her former home.

After disposing of her former subordinate and lover (as well as previous abode), Riful contemplated on how she was going to go to the Elemental Countries. After changing back into her human form, she reached into her layers of youki. She touched against one of her most hidden abilities, used only for escape in an emergency and gave a soft smile. She leapt into the air, disappearing into a swirling black vortex that swallowed her whole.

Her disappearance would cause no end to paranoia from both Isley and the Organization, but she didn't care. Naruto was too interesting to pass up.

* * *

Author's Note: I always wondered why Riful settled for Duph... I'm sure there were other Awakened Beings that could 'accept her without breaking' without being total idiots with dependency issues.

Also, I'm not sure who, but I do remember someone stating somewhere that Riful would be much more successful in her campaign for Awakened Beings if her hook was "Join us, and you can call me Onee-sama! Teehee!"

Her cuteness gives me cavities.


	2. The Legendary Mednin

"Talking"

'_Thinking'_

"**Technique"**

Disclaimer: Do not own anything you people think I own in regards to this story.

* * *

The Legendary Med-nin

As Riful plummeted through the void between dimensions, she suddenly remembered exactly why she never really used this ability.

Tendrils of energy reached out, constantly trying to lure her into another dimension. Those demon summoners were very impolite, never even asking permission…

She batted the annoyances away with slight pulses of youki, dodging some of the more persistent ones, before her destination loomed before her. Closing her eyes with a slight smile, she passed through the barrier and opened another void.

* * *

Outskirts of Konoha…

She plummeted from the sky head first, hands held to her sides. Her eyes were open, gazing curiously at the landscape rising to meet her, then flipped in the air just before hitting the ground, landing lightly on her feet from cushioning her fall with youki. Gazing around with a studious eye, she noted that she was not in the section of forest near her cave, and set off in a random direction, hoping to come across someone who could show her the way.

She came across a camp of bandits, and, knowing that they would probably know the way to Konoha, promptly asked them directions.

* * *

A few hundred feet away…

Senju Tsunade, last of the Senju clan, renowned medic-nin, and long-time holder of the slug contract was annoyed. The fastest route to the next town with a casino put her dangerously close to Konoha, so she had suppressed her chakra ruthlessly to avoid detection. She did _not _want to hear another of Sarutobi-sensei's 'Won't you come back to Konoha?' speeches. Trailing a few dozen meters behind her was her apprentice, Shizune, holding their pet pig, Tonton. Shizune, having noticed her mentor's positively scalding attitude when they neared Konoha, had dropped back to avoid being on the receiving end of Tsunade's legendary temper.

Even while her chakra was suppressed, however, Tsunade still heard the distinct voice of a bandit's.

"You little fucking bitch! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Tsunade used very controlled and suppressed chakra to aid her movements without being detected to dash towards the sound and observe the situation. Med-nin had to go through training to learn this particular skill so that they could heal unconscious ninja without waking them up due to the chakra surge, causing them to lash at the medic.

Shizune, unable to fully suppress her chakra and have it aid her movement at the same time, followed her master at a more human pace, having decided that she would rather go slower than be detected.

When Tsunade got to the clearing, what she saw horrified her.

* * *

With Riful…

"Excuse me, could you point me towards Konoha?"

When the bandit leader had seen a little girl, no older than 12 or 13 wander into their camp with a slight smile on her face and no weapons visible on her person, he thought it had to be a genjutsu. Either that or a really bad joke. Camped so close to a ninja village, he actually wouldn't put it past them to send out a defenseless girl to lull them into false security before ruthlessly wiping them out.

When he noticed the grass was actually bending beneath her feet, something normal illusionary **Bunshin (Clone)** do not do, he was starting to think it was just a joke. He simply told her to leave before she got killed.

The little girl got a slight frown on her face, something that provoked shudders of fear and dread in all bandits who saw it, before she changed her question.

"If you tell me which direction to go to find Konoha, I'll leave."

The leader sneered at her, before drawing his chipped and battle worn sword.

"Leave, bitch, before you die."

The girl's smile came back to life, but there was something… hidden in it. A lock of her hair (which had struck him as odd, as it was in a peculiar style) extended impossibly, stabbing directly through one of his subordinates, impaling him through the gut. Still with the faint smile on her face, she walked past the other twenty or so bandits who made up the camp, coming to stand right in front of the one impaled upon one of the locks of hair that framed her face. She tilted her head to the side, consequently making the ribbon twist painfully within the injury, before speaking in the same tone.

"Will _you _tell me which way I go to get to Konoha?"

The bandit, as if trying to keep some of his dignity at the defeat at the hands of a small girl, spat in her face. The saliva was batted away by another lock of hair moving as if on its own, before she gave a slight frown and sighed in resignation.

"Fine. I'll ask someone else, then."

The lock of hair impaling him through the abdomen sliced vertically, cleaving him in twain with only his pelvis keeping both halves of his body attached. She turned around, stepping forward before the blood spray could land on her, and faced the rest of the bandit camp who were in shock and awe at the ruthless _monster _who had come into their camp.

"Well? Will any of you tell me?"

The only reply was from the leader.

"You little fucking bitch! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Riful frowned again, provoking the same shudder of fear and dread, before she spoke up in a somewhat cheerful tone.

"Alright! It'll be like a game! You try to kill me, and I'll try to stop you. If I win, you'll tell me what I want to know!"

Her hair came to life at this point, the locks forming into jet-black strips as they lashed at the bandits, aiming for non vital areas. The bandits, not trained (at all), were only able to barely evade the relatively sluggish (to Riful) movement.

It was like a scene out of a horror film to Tsunade. The little girl had pointed up at the sky at this declaration, before standing stock still, something quite unnatural looking on a adolescent girl. Her hair came to life like the Medusa of lore, striking out (slowly, to her point of view) at the bandits. Even as Tsunade cringed as the bandits lost fingers, hands, and limbs, the girl's small smile never wavered. Soon, Riful had half the bandit force impaled upon the jet black threads and walked up to the leader who was impaled through the abdomen. The other half of the camp had simply died due to losing too much blood from amputated limbs.

"Will you tell me how to get to Konoha now?"

The bandit, seeing nothing but a monster before him, simply said 'go to hell, demon'.

Riful kept her smile, even as her ribbons sped up and ripped the still living bandits to shreds. Turning away from the massacre, she turned to the heavily suppressed energy nearby. Her hair retracted into its normal state, paradoxically blood free. Hopping over puddles of blood and gore, she stood in front of the traumatized Tsunade, still looking quite spotless as she had avoided the human blood spatter.

"Hi! Can you tell me where Konoha is?"

The shaking med-nin collapsed to a kneeling position, trembling as flashbacks of her lover dying, even as she pushed more and more medical chakra into his body flitted through her mind. She looked down to her shaking palms, still seeing the phantasmal blood staining them that she spent hours scrubbing off.

Shizune came out from the trees, seeing her mentor trembling and staring uncomprehendingly at her hands. A few feet in front of her was a little girl wearing a short, sleeveless pink sundress looking at Tsunade with a curious, and yet understanding gaze. The little girl caught sight of her (something that surprised Shizune, as she was one of the stealthiest med-nin ever, according to Tsunade, since she had been offered many assassination missions as a ninja) and walked over.

"Excuse me, but I think the pretty lady is having flashbacks. Could you tell me which way I go to get to Konoha?"

Shizune, rather surprised and unnerved, pointed her in the right direction and watched in slight awe as the girl disappeared in a burst of speed. She turned back to her mentor, and saw the sight that had sparked the flashbacks. Turning slightly green in horror, she picked up her mentor, slung her across her back, and held Tonton to her shoulder as she took off to get away from the sight.

Once they were a few hundred feet away from the camp, she laid her shaking mentor onto the ground and used a light water technique to wake her from her trance. Oddly enough, she didn't scream out "DAN!" like she normally would when she was woken from her flashbacks, but instead stared up at Shizune with a very disturbed look before speaking.

"Where did the little girl go?"

Shizune, surprised that Tsunade would remember the odd girl at a time like this, responded.

"Um… I pointed her in the right direction to head to Konoha, and she took off. She had quite a lot of speed for someone so young."

Tsunade shuddered a little before sighing in resignation. Her medic side screamed at her to go find out what kind of bloodline that was, as learning about bloodlines was a hobby for her. However, her more human side screamed at her to not go near the child that could spill so much blood and not even flinch. Above all, however, her ninja side slapped her human side, saying that she, too, had spilled blood. Much more blood than the little girl. Making a decision, one she was sure she was going to regret, she spoke.

"We're heading to Konoha."

Shizune, knowing that it would be pointless to disagree, nodded dutifully before picking Tonton back up, who softly complained (either to the knowledge of going back to the Leaf, or just the fact that she had to ride on Shizune's shoulder earlier, she didn't know) with a 'buwee'.

* * *

With Riful…

She ghosted through the forests on her way to Konoha, something she overshot by a few miles upon entrance to the dimension. Her feet barely struck the ground more than once every fifty feet, her hair whipping around in the wind resistance as she kept toward her designation. Her thoughts were not on her destination, however, but on the two women she had just left.

'_The blonde one had very high energy control, perhaps higher than my own. She also wavered and flickered, perhaps she uses an illusion? The brunette had exceptional stealth abilities, as I almost didn't notice her on such a casual glance… Interesting…'_

She stopped her movement, letting her toes skim over the grass before coming to a complete halt, something that surprised her two pursuers. The blonde one and the brunette one dropped from the trees, something that she noted for future use, as it might be a faster way of travel. The blonde one spoke, her eyes hard and scrutinizing.

"What are your intentions towards Konoha?"

Riful blinked once in surprise, before her smile widened a little as she relayed her mission objective. She clasped her hands in front of her as she replied.

"I'm going to go visit Naruto!"

She noted the shock and surprise from the two. Did they think she was going to go attack the village or something…?

Tsunade, feeling as if she should remember that name, asked another question.

"Who's Naruto?"

Riful frowned a little, setting off the same reaction in Tsunade and her apprentice as she did in the bandits before replying.

"I thought everyone knew who he was, since everyone's so mean to him."

The medic, starting to feel very disturbed that the girl seemingly didn't show any sort of regret or care that she had just killed (slaughtered) twenty or so bandits, asked another question.

"Did you have to kill them back there?"

Riful simply smiled and clasped her hands behind her back before answering.

"Mhm! They said they were going to kill me, so it's only polite to return the favor."

Both medics shuddered a bit, and Shizune spoke.

"What does Naruto-san look like? We may be able to help you find him."

Riful's smile brightened at the subject, launching into it with childish glee.

"Well, he used to have golden hair and blue eyes, but now he has hair like straw left in the sun too long. And his eyes have turned this interesting silver color… Anyway! I usually meet him at my cave, but I lost my way when I came here, and needed direction to get back to Konoha, so I can meet him at my cave!"

Shizune and Tsunade were rather surprised by this, with Tsunade the one to speak.

"You live… in a cave?"

Riful nodded, seemingly taking it as something normal and turning the conversation back on track.

"So do either of you know where Naruto is?"

Both shook their heads, prompting Riful to giggle and turn away.

"Alright, I'll go search for him on my own. It'll be like hide and seek!"

Before either could stop her, she put on a burst of speed that left an afterimage behind, something that completely took both medics by surprise.

Tsunade turned to Shizune, and spoke one sentence before they both took to the trees.

"She isn't normal."

* * *

With Naruto…

He had been training in Riful's cave for awhile today, but he still hadn't seen any sign of Riful. Something pricked at his youki sense, though, sparking recognition. He worked his youki sensing while doing normal physical training as it wouldn't disturb muscle building, unlike if he tried to channel it through his body, which would lessen the effects of physical training. A very familiar form of youki was heading towards Konoha, though it was extremely hard for him to pinpoint it due to her ability to suppress it. It was like searching, not for a needle within a haystack, but more like a dandelion seed in the wind.

Intrigued, and a little hopeful that she had found a way to come to his world, he disappeared from the cave with a burst of youki to his legs. He winced in pain when he left an afterimage behind, as he still hadn't perfected the technique yet.

* * *

At the Konoha west gate…

Riful appeared, her hair blowing forward with the sudden halt, something that she learned to do specifically because it was fun. She looked upon the gates with a small smile on her face and headed toward the guard.

The guard was looking at her very suspiciously, as she didn't look like a nin but seemed to appear out of nowhere. He was just about to reach for his weapon pouch when she spoke up to him.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where Uzumaki Naruto is?"

The guard's eyes instantly hardened into a cold glare at the name, expecting the girl to flinch and run away like everyone else he had turned 'the eyes' onto. Disturbingly, she just raised an eyebrow at him, as if urging him to hurry up and answer her.

"No. I do not know where that _brat_ is."

The girl simply gave a smile and a nod, and, before his eyes, disappeared with a blur of motion into the village. Extremely suspicious, as she hadn't had a hitai-ate on at all, he disappeared into a **Shunshin (Body Flicker) **to the Hokage's office to report an intruder.

* * *

Almost half an hour later…

Several jounin and ANBU tasked with defense of the village came across an extremely odd sight.

They had been called by the Hokage to search for a little girl who was an intruder with suspiciously high speed, who was looking for one Uzumaki Naruto. It was unknown what her intentions were, but many hoped they were hostile and thus slowed the search. When they finally came across her, she had apparently found the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and their hopes were high as she seemed to be choking him.

When they heard her yell "Naruto! I came to visit you!", they realized she was just hugging him.

Damn.

And the Jinchuuriki dared to be _happy _about it! They'd just have to ruin the moment.

They appeared in bursts of speed, hoping to catch them off guard and provoke fear, but only got a synchronized reaction of raising a single eyebrow in response.

"The Hokage would like to see you, Uzumaki-san, and your 'visitor'."

Expecting to have to grab the brat and his girlfriend in a ride-along **Shunshin**, the jounin and ANBU were surprised when they both gave slight laughs and blurred out of existence, leaving afterimages behind.

* * *

Hokage's Office…

Oddly enough, the appearance of Riful and Naruto through the Hokage's window coincided with Tsunade and Shizune's appearance through the door (consequently slamming it into the wall where it rebounded into its frame). The whole scene would have been quite dramatic, if Naruto hadn't looked up at Tsunade, pointed at her, and asked Riful a question.

"Who's the pretty lady?"

Riful followed the finger, recognized the woman, and pointed a finger upward by her head in declaration.

"Oh! That's Pretty Lady. Hi, Pretty Lady!"

The accumulated audience of Shizune, Sarutobi, and Tonton had beads of sweat on the sides of their heads from the surrealism as well as the randomness. Tsunade wasn't sure whether or not to be flattered or disturbed by how the little girl was behaving.

Sarutobi, however, was quite suspicious of the girl that Naruto was seemingly close with. He had never seen her on his glances into the crystal ball, so who could she be? He discreetly activated a silencing technique on the room before turning to Riful, as Tsunade was not the unknown factor here.

"Who are you?"

Riful gave a giggle and answered.

"I'm Naruto's friend."

The Sandaime's eyes hardened into a cold glare, quite alike to those of the villagers.

"I don't believe you."

Naruto took this moment to speak up, shocking Tsunade as to his perception.

"Um… Hokage-san, how would you know who I'm friends with? I don't see you more than once a year, and whenever I do you're busy with paperwork…"

Sarutobi sputtered an excuse, before Naruto slammed a fist into his palm and made a declaration so as to avoid letting suspicion stick to Riful.

"I've got it! You're a pedophile and you spy on me!"

Riful, going along with the act, pointed at the Hokage and acted her apparent age.

"You dirty, dirty old man…"

Now, unless the Hokage wanted to actually admit using his crystal ball to watch over Naruto, he would have to back off. And if he did admit it, then his wayward medic student might think his romantic interests were quite like those of her snake-using teammate… He would still be suspicious of the little girl, though, and watched her closely, looking for any sign of deceit. He found none, however. Riful spoke up, giving a slight smile.

"Your funny masked people said you wanted to meet with Naruto and I?"

The Hokage gave the girl a piercing stare, searching for any lie as he made his statement.

"Yes. It was reported that there was an intruder to the village who had speed that surpassed many ninja, and that she looked quite like you."

Riful's lips curled downward only slightly, but even that movement was enough to provoke the same fear and dread in the Hokage. However, it disappeared as quickly as the frown, as she spoke.

"Oh! I was looking for Naruto. I live in a cave outside the village, so I thought it would be okay for me to come inside to look for him."

The Hokage was unable to detect any facial or body twitches to denote a lie, and so he sat back before asking the first question that came to mind.

"You… live in a cave?"

Riful giggled at this, and replied.

"Mhm! Why does everyone keep asking me?"

The Hokage was slightly dumbfounded at this, before finally dismissing the girl as a threat to Naruto. After all, if she doesn't realize living in a cave is odd, then she obviously is an orphan and thus probably taught herself to move that fast.

"What's your name?"

The little girl just smiled a little wider and bounced on the balls of her feet.

"My name is Riful, and it's nice to meet you, Hokage-san!"

Tsunade was looking at her as if she was absolutely insane, which Sarutobi finally picked up on. After bidding the two farewell (as obviously the ninja at the gate made a mistake), he waited for Tsunade to explain why she was in Konoha.

"We came because that little girl killed a camp of twenty or so bandits because they wouldn't give her directions to Konoha. Granted, they threatened to kill her, but she is not _normal_ Sarutobi-sensei."

The Hokage's eyebrows rose in disbelief. That harmless looking little girl killed over twenty bandits…? He motioned for Tsunade to explain.

"I think she has a Kekkei Genkai (bloodline limit) that allows her to control her hair. She extended it and moved it slowly, as if she was playing with them, all the while cutting off fingers, hands, arms, anything really that wasn't lethal. She finally caught half of the bandits by piercing them with locks of her hair, while the rest had died from blood loss and asked for directions to Konoha. The leader told her to go to hell, and her hair sped up until it was starting to blur in my perception, _shredding _the last of the bandits. When we caught up to her on the way here, she didn't seem to care at all that she had killed so many."

Sarutobi was now regretting that he had let her go off with Naruto. Certainly she must be an assassin in disguise and had used a genjutsu to make him act along with her as if he was her friend! Pulling out his nifty scrying ball, he homed in on Naruto's location (something that Tsunade took note of and narrowed her eyes at her former instructor). He took note of the location, before telling Tsunade and Shizune to follow him as he took off towards Riful's cave.

* * *

Riful's cave…

As the three shinobi blurred in, they saw something rather odd. Naruto was laying on a ledge of rock, outwardly sleeping peacefully, while Riful was dancing in the sunbeams. Sarutobi confronted her, eyes cold and unflinching once again.

"Did you kill the bandits outside of Konoha?"

Riful, unperturbed, answered in her whimsical way.

"Mhm! They were threatening to kill me, so I returned the favor. I only wanted directions…"

The Sandaime was also starting to feel disturbed with her behavior, while Tsunade had her eyes narrowed at Naruto's 'sleeping' form. Something was…off. Riful, noticing the pretty lady was staring at her friend, distracted the Hokage before he could notice.

"Um… what age does the Ninja Academy start at?"

The Hokage replied that it started at age 11, giving students four years to learn the curriculum before graduating if they passed the final exam.

Riful, deciding to get the old man to quit being so suspicious about her, offered that both she and Naruto would like to join the next year's class, but neither had enough money for tuition.

The Sandaime, noting no deceit in her demeanor once again, decided he would pay for the both of them. After all, if she wanted to be a ninja for Konoha, then she must not be trying to kill Naruto. Tsunade was the only one who caught the slight twitching of the pale blonde's lips. The medic, taking a risk, said she wanted to speak with Riful alone for a little while, dismissing both Shizune and the Hokage. As soon as they had left, she rounded on the 'sleeping' blonde and spoke.

"I know you're awake. What are you hiding?"

Beastial, somewhat cat-like, slit golden eyes blinked open to stare at her, and the blonde sheepishly scratched the back of his head while she tried to figure out how the change had come about.

"Um… Riful and I were playing tag."

The medic lifted one eyebrow in silent question of 'how exactly did tag change your eye color', causing him to elaborate.

"I have a… condition."

He seemed to be implying something, which caused Tsunade to decide to take a risk. Honestly, if he didn't know about it already, then she really wouldn't care that she would have to tell him. The boy should know what he's keeping prisoner, after all, and she felt Sarutobi-sensei was being an idiot by keeping it from him.

"I'm well aware of the Kyuubi, but I was under the notion that its eyes were red, not gold."

Riful called up the fabricated story she had come up with just in case others noticed the change, and relayed it in uncharacteristic seriousness.

"Naruto absorbed the Kyuubi. He is now physiologically half-human half-youma and uses youki instead of chakra. As he uses more and more youki, he gets… changes. Temporary changes that will go away in a few minutes, but they still change. We were playing high speed tag and he activated a change by using youki."

Tsunade blinked rapidly at this, before a spark of interest lit up her honey brown eyes. All sannin were obsessed with something, it was a widely accepted fact. Orochimaru had experiments and little boys, Jiraiya had women and writing pornography, and many thought Tsunade had drinking and gambling.

They were wrong, those were simply coping mechanisms for the loss of both her lover and her brother.

Her real obsession was with medical research.

Already starting hand seals for a medical jutsu, she was surprised when jet black ribbons surrounded her while Naruto stood in a ready stance for an odd form of taijutsu. Riful's voice spoke up from behind her, making her blush in embarrassment.

"If you are going to hurt Naruto, then I'm afraid we'll have to return the favor."

Tsunade would have giggled in nervousness and embarrassment if she weren't somewhat afraid that one movement would get her killed, as she wasn't sure if her secret technique could regenerate from the damage those threads did. Instead she settled for explaining herself.

"I was going to do a diagnostic medical jutsu to inspect how his physiology changed… I'm sorry for starting hand seals without explaining myself."

The ribbons retracted, and Riful appeared in her view with an similar glint of interest in her eye.

"You can do a technique for that?"

The medic nodded, causing the glint to grow, something that Tsunade thought was equally adorable and disturbing. Adorable because she thought it was great someone shared her love of medical research, and disturbing because of the mental image she got of Riful using her hair as scalpels. Naruto, when confronted with two medical research crazed women, could only blink and lay back, as there was no way he could get out of this.

Several in-depth diagnostic techniques later, Tsunade had some odd results.

"You're almost completely human-looking, but your bones, muscles, tendons, and all the other stuff on the inside has been changed somewhat to work more efficiently and the like. Your eyes have more rods in them, so you can see much better in the dark, and your perception has sharpened. Your energy isn't quite as chaotic as I expected, but it might not work for ninjutsu unless you learn some excessive control. Could you go through the changes so I can learn to recognize them if I see another case like yours?"

Naruto gave a slight laugh and turned to Riful, silently asking for permission, who simply gave him a light smile and spoke.

"Phantom tag?"

Naruto gave an equal smile before replying.

"Phantom tag."

The next few moments of Tsunade's perception were a minor blur as they both moved quick enough to leave multiple afterimages, sometimes tagging the other's afterimage as they tried to catch the real one. They both stopped, though, when the next change happened.

The flesh over his jaw rippled and twitched, and with some quiet grinding sounds it stopped. Tsunade was curious, until he smiled, showing a full set of extremely pointed teeth, his lips could pull back further than humanly normal, and that his jaw could open a bit more than usual, almost dislocating. She ran a diagnostic technique over his jaws to assess the change.

"Interesting… your teeth and jaw bones have gotten stronger than usual, the muscles much stronger, and I'd guess you could bite… through steel."

When Naruto gave a laugh and scratched the back of his head, she wasn't sure if it was adorable or disturbing due to his new set of teeth.

Riful and Naruto blurred into motion again, though this time noticeably faster for a few more moments before stopping. The changes were happening again.

The skin above his arms and legs was twitching and rippling this time, before a louder crunching and grinding sound caused Tsunade to twitch in a combination of disgust and awe. The muscles on his arms and legs, already harder and bigger than others his age, distorted monstrously, bulging inhumanly with thick veins standing out against his skin.

He was breathing heavier than normal with exertion, before speaking in a strained tone.

"Tsunade-san, hurry. I need to go back to normal."

She noted the urgency in his tone, before running another diagnostic over his body. She nodded to him, slightly surprised as Riful laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and seemed to assist him in going back to normal.

"Your muscular structure as well as bones experience elevated blood flow and enhanced strength. Quite interesting… why did you have to go back to normal?"

Riful spoke up, as Naruto wasn't quite in the state to be speaking. Going from channeling so much _raw_ _power_ down to back to normal was quite a shock, though it was mainly because the experience of releasing more and more youki felt… good for men, making it harder for him to revert than women. Had he been a little older, he would have said the feeling was pleasurable.

"If he goes past 80 percent, he will start to become a demon. We don't want that yet, do we, Naruto?"

The pale blonde shook his head, getting his breathing back to normal. Tsunade was quite suspicious, as she had caught the 'yet', but decided not to voice it. Instead, she voiced her question she had for Riful.

"How do you control your hair like you do?"

The young girl just gave her a laugh and threaded her fingers together, laying her chin on them.

"I don't know. I've always been able to."

Tsunade's glint returned, and a smile pulled at her lips.

"Is it a Kekkei Genkai (bloodline limit)?"

Riful tilted her head to the side.

"What's that?"

The medic, seeing that it might actually be one, elaborated.

"It's a trait handed down genetically through families."

This once again perked Riful's interest, as she wondered what other types of Kekkei Genkai there were…

"Um… I don't know my family, so I don't know. I've always had it, though!"

* * *

Tsunade watched over the two as they went back to their game of tag, though with much less speed to avoid Naruto changing more than his eyes. She noticed that, while it _was _a training exercise, both genuinely enjoyed it. Their personalities intrigued her, as Riful showed that she did understand the concept of life and death much like a ninja, but didn't let it disturb her like it had so many others. Naruto, when he heard of Riful being confronted by bandits and subsequently massacring them, also showed that he understood the reality of a shinobi lifestyle, and similarly didn't let it affect him too much.

The slug summoner was still suspicious of Riful's behavior, but she couldn't deny that the two were growing on her… when Riful wasn't slaughtering people in front of her, anyway. She bid them good day and went off to notify the Hokage that she would be staying to observe the two of them. She knew Naruto would need control exercises to turn youki into ninjutsu-compatible energy, and she was the best in Konoha to teach him.

When speaking with the Hokage, she made sure to leave out Naruto's changed physiology and the suspicious nature of Riful, simply stating that she would be staying for an undetermined amount of time. To Sandaime, he believed she was escaping from debt collectors, as they were sure she'd never be caught dead in Konoha.

When she laid down to sleep that night, she looked back on how, as soon as Riful laid her hand on Naruto's shoulder, she could tell his youki got back under control quicker.

As she drifted into the land of dreams, her last thought was '_Things will be quite interesting.'_

* * *

Author's Note: Mwahaha... the chapters will be about half the size of my other two fics, seeing as how I want at least one story that goes on into the 20 chapter range. In contrast, this story will be updated more often, I believe, so it's basically the same amount of writing.

Honestly, before anyone brings it up, I don't see Tsunade as running to Sarutobi about anything she finds suspicious. _Especially _when he seemed so suspicious about Naruto even having a friend, and then showed that he _did _spy on him with the crystal ball. It's been at least a decade since they had a 'warm' relationship, since Sarutobi wasn't supporting her decision to leave Konoha for an extended period of time after both her brother and lover died in the last war.


	3. The Awakening

"Talking"

'_Thinking'_

"**Technique"**

Disclaimer: …Yeah…don't own anything alluded to in this story.

* * *

The Awakening

Time seemed to blur by for Naruto, Riful, and Tsunade. Months turned to blurs of gray as they slid past their perception, too consumed with their tasks to pay attention to it. Tsunade's suspicions of Riful were rising, however. She noticed that, once a month, the little girl would disappear for a few hours and come back looking better than when she had left. At first, she thought it was just Riful going through menses and she left to take care of it.

However, that theory was blown out of the water when scouts started reporting that bandit camps near Konoha were going into chaos. Several were speaking of how nightmares in the darkness of the forests would capture just one of their number, and the only thing they'd hear from their former comrade would be a scream of absolute terror. Several days later, there would be a corpse looking as if it had been eaten by wild animals somewhere in the forests. However, unlike wild animal mauling, the bones were all perfectly intact. As if… the bones didn't hunger them at all.

She never saw Riful eat anything, if she thought about it. The little girl would always politely decline food, declaring she had already eaten or that she wasn't hungry. She wasn't thinning dangerously, though, so it really wasn't of a medic's concern.

Her lessons with Naruto were going well, but only served to further Tsunade's suspicions when Riful asked if she could sit in on them, as she found it very interesting. The med-nin allowed it, and continued with her lessons.

She detailed how chakra moved like a stream when not in use, whereas youki sort of… bubbled beneath the surface, waiting to be channeled. She noted that youki never left the body, something that both Naruto and Riful noticed, whereas chakra liked to leave the body through tenketsu. Tenketsu were specific points on the body where chakra can exit the human body, 361 of them in all. Whereas chakra was only trivially affected by emotion, channeling of youki could be completely skewed by emotion. Chakra also liked to branch out, much like a river feeding smaller streams, whereas youki only moved if the controller willed it to.

To turn youki into usable energy to be released in the form of ninjutsu (as it would be impossible to turn youki into chakra) he would have to force a small part of it to flow to his hands, branching out, and then doing the hand signs. He would also have to keep an almost supernatural calm about him, as otherwise his youki may fluctuate. Later on, when Riful and Naruto were alone, she suppressed her chakra almost to zero, becoming almost undetectable and watched.

Riful had apparently remembered something, and relayed to Naruto that the same supernatural calm was required for youki sensing at long distance, as well as youki manipulation, by aligning his youki with another's and changing trajectory of attacks. Tsunade left after that, her suspicions coming to a high point as she realized that Riful was _teaching _him about youki, thus meaning that she had a lot of experience in the area.

However, she noticed that the little girl wasn't a threat to any that simply left her alone, and thus just continued to observe. She noted a few little things, such as how she didn't seem to grow at all over the year, something unheard of for an adolescent. She also noted how no energy was released when she used her hair abilities.

* * *

Over the year, Naruto's personality had started adapting to the requirement for learning ninjutsu. Unlike Riful, who was always calm, though whimsical, he had been somewhat… unstable with his emotions. Riful only touched on the surface of the emotion she was expressing, giving her face enough of genuine emotion so that it wouldn't look fake when she smiled, but not letting it cloud her mind. Naruto, however, had basically worn his emotions on his sleeve, experiencing the full brunt of them, something that probably hindered his training at least a small amount.

As he changed more and more, Tsunade was in awe at how much better he was getting. Though his face stopped shifting into a multitude of emotions at the drop of a hat, he kept his whimsical nature, only serving to make him seem like an enigma. His eyes were half-lidded in outward boredom, and his face usually set in an indifferent expression, but it only served to exaggerate his somewhat odd questions and declarations.

Seeing someone the outward epitome of calm suddenly ask her if she could transplant wings to Tonton and let him take her out for a fly was a rather surreal experience for the slug summoner.

His training in youki sensing and manipulation was going quite well, as Riful had finally found his specialization and couldn't be happier about it. The two were able to adapt their sensing to sense chakra as well, now that they knew the very specific differences between the two, but they didn't use it often inside the village. Having thousands of ninja around them would be like placing them in a dark room and then turning on thousands of lights around them. Very disorienting.

At the start of the Academy's year, both Naruto and Riful joined, with Riful stating that she was starting two years late due to wanting to stay with Naruto. The teachers, simply thinking she was being corrupted, tried to separate the two and 'save' her. While they gave Naruto the lowest grades in the class they could without failing him (as the Sandaime would notice if Naruto flunked out of the class when he was so well trained), Riful was given second highest grades right under the pink haired Haruno Sakura.

Neither cared, as they were learning things to attempt with youki and ninjutsu to use with the modifiable youki. No matter how they tried to give Naruto a poor education, Riful would just fill him in on the missing parts.

Tsunade's suspicions came to a boil when she asked Riful if she would like a medical physical. The physical was required for any genin to graduate, as it provided their village with a medical record of them in perfect health to compare against when they're injured. The girl simply declined and said she'd take it on another year before graduation. Tsunade respected her privacy, not attempting to ambush her with a syringe when she was sleeping, but still kept her suspicions.

* * *

After their second year of the academy, a year where Naruto progressed enough in his energy sensing to specify emotions of any within a hundred feet of him, the confrontation Tsunade was sure would happen came.

Riful had asked to see Tsunade in private, taking her out of the hospital and back to her cave to avoid eavesdroppers. Tsunade was expecting some sort of confession, but instead got a question.

"Um… can you make a barrier that prevents energy from leaking out of an area?"

The legendary med-nin only nodded, as she could. For the more in-depth cases of surgery, many med-nin would move the patient to a 'ritual room'. There, four to six med-nin would channel chakra through a seal in the floor to reconstruct areas of the patient's body, using a part of the patient (a lock of hair, for example) as a medium for regeneration. This kind of surgery was very chakra intensive, and would dull or aggravate shinobi chakra senses, and so they'd put an energy seal on the door and room to prevent any chakra being leaked out. Consequently, the extra chakra in the air would also help heal the patient, speeding up the process.

Riful seemed somewhat awkward and nervous about her next question, and that struck Tsunade as odd. The girl was calm in all situations, and it unnerved her to thinking maybe a confrontation wasn't a good idea. In reality, Riful would normally browbeat someone to do it for her, or manipulate them into doing it, but she had (against better judgment) become somewhat attached to Tsunade. She hadn't had someone actually worry about her well being in centuries except for Naruto and now Tsunade. Duph only cared if she would leave him, and the youma and Claymores that sometimes sought her out just wanted to kill her. She actually didn't want to kill Tsunade if all went to hell after this.

"Naruto kinda wants to awaken, and I know that the youki he'd give off during that would make the entire village paranoid and up in arms. I need someone to do an energy seal on the area we would be doing it in."

Tsunade was taken aback by this, as she didn't think anyone would want to become a demon by choice. However, something stood out in her mind about how Riful had a specific term for what he wanted to do, and she had to get all the information she could out of the girl.

"There's a term for it, and you're familiar with it? Is there something you're not telling me?"

At this point, Riful knew it was impossible to just cut and run. Tsunade's suspicions would be at a boiling point, and she'd eventually do something drastic to try and ease them. Preparing to have to kill someone she'd come close to in the past two years, she spoke.

"Um… I'm kind of… the end result of an awakening, and Naruto wanted to be more like me. We also decided, once he goes back to 'normal', the demonic changes that he goes through wouldn't show and would then keep suspicion off him."

Tsunade physically reeled back in shock, having just learned that Riful was an actual demon. However, her medical interests were sparked, and overrode her common sense.

"Tell me everything."

* * *

And Riful did. After all, if you're going to kill someone it's not like they're going to tell tales. She told Tsunade of how she came from a different world, one where Claymores like Naruto patrol and destroy demons. How they sometimes go past their limits and awaken, becoming human-like in consciousness, but with a hunger for human innards. How she was a rank 1 Claymore who had awakened. Oddly, Tsunade took it quite well, having come close to the two over the past few years, and thus she knew that they weren't mindless killing machines about to go on rampages. She was somewhat disgusted with the idea of eating humans, but her medical research flared as she wanted to learn how they were able to digest it as well as what nutrients they needed that they could only get from humans. She also accepted that it was necessary, as everything had a diet that they needed to stick to, and it just happened to be that humans were the diet of youma. She was glad, however, that Riful stuck to bandits and the like, instead of harming any citizens. The only thing Tsunade wanted to know now was what her true form was, but Riful had declined to show it until she knew that Tsunade wasn't going to go get torches and pitchforks and attempt to burn the demon out.

This hit Tsunade rather close to home, as she was somewhat friends with Riful and Naruto, and she only just realized that Riful was _apprehensive of her_ because she thought the med-nin was going to _shun and attempt to assassinate her _for just being what she was. It was then that she noticed, having come out of her medic craze, Riful's arms and hair had frayed into the jet black ribbons, and had every exit of the cave blocked off. When she looked into the Abyssal One's eyes, she didn't see aggression or blood lust, but only sadness and resignation. Deciding to go with maternal/sisterly instincts, she instead walked up to the small girl (in appearance alone) and knelt down, giving her a hug and speaking.

"Even though you're a demon, you're still _you_. Nothing has changed about you from when you were a Claymore to when you became a demon except for your physiology."

Riful was rather unprepared for this possibility, and her emotions caused a fluctuation in her youki, allowing Tsunade to feel it since she was in physical contact with the girl. The med-nin was shocked at how much power she had within her, cementing the belief that she would have died if it came to blows.

Tsunade finally agreed to help with Naruto's awakening, but only if she got to do diagnostics on both of them to compare how two demons' physiology differs from each other. Riful was rather glad about that, and retracted her hair and arms, giving the sannin a hug.

* * *

In a cave several miles away from Konoha…

Finally finding a suitable place for the procedure, Tsunade got around to drawing the seals to block energy from leaving. Riful, however, explained to Naruto that Tsunade was actually accepting of their situation, and she wouldn't have to die. The twelve year old gave a broad grin at this; truly happy that someone he had also come close to wouldn't have to die.

Tsunade was about to enter the cave, having set up the seal, when Riful stopped her.

"When a Claymore awakens, they are governed by instinct alone for several minutes to a few hours before their consciousness can take control. With Naruto having so much power, I'm sure I'll be forced to subdue him until he can take control, and I don't want you caught in the crossfire."

The med-nin was accepting of this, but pulled out a telescope that she had 'borrowed' (confiscated) from Jiraiya, and said she was going to watch anyway. Riful gave her a small smile and headed into the cave, where Naruto had already begun channeling youki.

As soon as he passed the 80 percent limit, he didn't yell, scream, or groan. He _roared_. Even Tsunade could hear the cracking and crunching associated with body parts reconstructing, and she was glad she had put a silencing technique on top of the energy containment barrier. She watched in something between disgust, awe, and medical interest as his form shifted grotesquely, his legs and feet seeming to fray like the end of a worn rope.

As soon as he hit 100 percent, he grew explosively, enough that Tsunade had a hard time keeping track of his growth. While Naruto was awakening, Riful was also ascending to her own awakened form, seeming to melt into hundreds of midnight black threads. The ground inside the cavern was swiftly covered with her trailing ribbons that spiraled into one point to form her torso and head, only a few feet off the ground while she waited to see how tall Naruto would grow.

She watched, intrigued, as his body seemed to be similar to hers. His body, however, split into hundreds of tentacles or tendrils, very plantlike in appearance as opposed to her ribbon-like threads. She could see that his survival instinct was very apparent in his form, as it was similar to her own.

He grew to the height of a bijuu, easily one hundred feet, and opened his eyes. Unlike Riful's bright red, his own were a shade of deep green that one would associate with moss or mold. His body, formed out of tentacles and tendrils in the same way Riful's was of threads and ribbons, was a red color usually attributed to blood. Acting under instinct, his eyes glinted in blood lust and his mouth grinned wide, showing off very needle-like white teeth as he whipped forward to engage Riful in combat.

Tsunade was in absolute awe at seeing Riful's true form compounded by watching Naruto awaken. She couldn't help but admit that the female Abyssal One's form was very beautiful, though Naruto's own was also more aesthetically pleasing than she would admit Kyuubi's was. She watched, spellbound, as Riful engaged Naruto in combat, seeking to hinder and subdue him until he came back to consciousness.

Ribbons and threads sliced forward at an impossible speed, entangling with tentacles and root-like appendages. She wove her own body around Naruto's, seeking to hinder his movement without harming him too much. Her plan was cut short, however, when the tentacles started sprouting _thorns_, forcing her to have to start cutting off tendrils. The needle-like grin never left Naruto's face as he thrashed his thorn-covered tendrils forward, seeking to shred the thin ribbons to pieces.

Tsunade was sure that, if she were one to enjoy bloodshed, she would be giggling and laughing up a storm. Purple blood sprayed around the cave, and bits and pieces of ribbons and tentacles rained from near the ceiling as the clash between the two sped up. Her phobia of blood had been nearly quashed after working in the hospital for the past two years, but this amount of carnage still made her shiver.

They continued attacking each other, though Riful clearly had the upper hand due to experience and having a clear mind, while Naruto was merely thrashing in anger and instinct. Both Tsunade and Riful knew that he was coming more and more into himself as his movements started to hesitate, not wanting to harm his friend. Just before they were sure he'd come to consciousness, though, his body acted on instinct.

A gaping maw opened somewhere in the middle of his body, lined with rows of serrated black teeth and a sickeningly long Orochimaru-esque black tongue to top it off. It seemed to breathe in, before releasing a nauseating green cloud that completely enveloped Riful. The female Abyssal had a rather odd anatomy, as her organs were split evenly between the ribbons, thus preventing a direct hit to her humanoid torso from being too fatal, and allowing her to regenerate bits and pieces of her organs every time a ribbon was cut off without having to regenerate the entire organ. However, this lead to something that normally wasn't a disadvantage; she breathed much like a plant, by absorbing air through her ribbons. Right now it was a disadvantage, though, as she breathed in the toxic air.

Thankfully, as soon as she started to feel the effects of the cloud, Naruto came back to consciousness and descended to his child-like form. Tsunade noticed that, even though the Kyuubi was dead, he still had the whisker marks. His hair, though, had changed from the usual spiky sea-urchin appearance. It had lengthened to his shoulders, and the locks clumped together to form tentacles or ropes of golden blonde hair that laid limp on his head. His eyes had returned from the silver hue back to their normal cobalt blue.

He was nude, as one is after an awakening, but he didn't seem disturbed by it. He was too focused on Riful who had descended to her own child form and was having difficulty breathing. He beckoned the med-nin over, and relayed what he could about what happened.

"I think she inhaled spores of some sort. Can you extract them? Her regeneration can't fight off something like that."

The slug summoner nodded, still somewhat shell shocked about the whole thing, only nodded and began the seals for an extraction technique usually used for poisons. She had no water on hand, though, so she used pure chakra to encapsulate and remove the spores. Riful, as soon as the spores were removed (and destroyed, as Tsunade thought they might be a bit too dangerous to take into a lab and investigate) immediately hugged Naruto with a grin on her face.

Naruto, only now noticing his nudity, turned to Tsunade with a completely calm composure and asked for some clothing, which she gave him her 'Gamble' coat to cover up with.

* * *

After that day, the two were noticeably closer; something Tsunade thought was quite cute. She performed multiple diagnostics on both of them to ascertain how different they were from each other and came to an odd conclusion. They had similar strains of DNA in some points, obviously the generic youma attributes, but Naruto's became more like a plant, while Riful's kept changing constantly.

She fabricated both of their medical records to be 'normal', and set herself as their primary doctor/caregiver to prevent others from wanting to experiment on their odd physiology. She did have a question for Riful, though.

"Riful, is there something that influences what the awakened form is like?"

The Abyssal One gave her an odd look, but nodded and elaborated.

"It can be a number of things. I was a specialist in shape shifting, and my favorite thing was to elongate my fingers and arms because it was fun and that influenced my form to be like it is. Naruto, however, had his survival instinct influence his. Plants never give up on life until they're completely destroyed, something that he shows. The spores probably have something to do with it, too. Awakened forms can be influenced by strong thoughts, personalities, and survival instinct."

The med-nin was rather interested at that, as it sounded like they could change their DNA with enough thought (as well as overwhelming power gained from awakening).

Sarutobi noticed Naruto's abrupt change of appearance, but simply chalked it up to his original theory. Obviously, either Minato or Kushina went through a phase where their hair lightened and their eyes changed to silver, but then went back to normal in a few years. He thought the new hairstyle was just something the boy styled it as. When others complained about his appearance, saying it was unnatural for someone to change so quickly, he simply said that maybe one of the boy's parents did that at a young age too. After all, he was an orphan, and they didn't know who his parents were.

* * *

During their third year of the Academy, Tsunade finally swallowed her disgust and asked if she could run tests on them while they were eating so that she could find out what nutrients they were getting from the humans. She followed them on their monthly bandit capture with a feeling of intense dread in her stomach of having to watch a human being _eaten_. She was rather surprised at how clean it was, though.

It was all done in a matter of a few minutes. Riful captured a bandit with her threads, pulled him back to their camp, and slit his throat with one of the threads, letting him bleed out. Afterward, she eviscerated him very neatly and the two feasted on the organs. True, they had some blood on their face from it, but it wasn't what she was expecting. She was honestly expecting to see them munch completely through the corpse like wild animals. When she brought this up, Riful gave a light laugh and replied that many youma do that as they don't really care about how they look when eating, but they were being neat just for her. After all, if you had horrible table manners, wouldn't you clean it up when you had guests? It made some form of twisted sense to the medic.

She ran the tests, and noticed something rather odd. The nutrients they were getting were similar to what one would ingest if they eviscerated and ate a cow, or a pig. Not close enough to replace the diet, but it was something to look into. Afterward, they disposed of the corpse by throwing it to the animals so that they could have the remains that neither wished to ingest, like the bones, muscles, fat and the like.

* * *

In the final year of the Academy, they learned ninjutsu. The first three years were a breeze for the two, as everything had already been learned via the Claymore training program, even the ambidexterity and learning to throw weapons. They were somewhat in the middle of the class when it came to ninjutsu, as the moldable youki wasn't that great for ninjutsu. They could do it, and it was usable, but it wasn't something that they had any great advantage in. However, they surpassed all expectations with channeling 'chakra' into limbs for enhancing physical prowess.

It all came down to the fact that chakra was made to be used outside the body, whereas youki was made to be used inside the body.

Naruto expressed a desire to use a weapon, but both Tsunade and Riful shot that option down quite quickly, as the materials to make a weapon that could stand up to any of their strength would be incredibly hard to get. The med-nin had heard, though, that the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist had some incredibly durable weapons. Perhaps they could get their hands on one of those and melt it down.

Naruto quickly learned to use his Abyssal form well enough in a fight, and, even though he had as much raw power as Riful, he lacked the sheer amount of experience and knowledge of tactics that the other Abyssal had. Tsunade quickly was desensitized to gore when she observed their 'sparring' inside the sealed cavern, as she was on hand in case of another situation like the spores came up.

The spores, oddly enough, were like Naruto's seeds if he were a plant. They grew on the nutrients and blood of whoever inhaled them, before sprouting inside their body. He could also 'infect' someone with spores and be able to know where they are, as well as see through their eyes if he aligned his energy with theirs. He was able to prevent the spores from sprouting or draining a noticeable amount of nutrients and blood on the 'infected' people, since the spores were still technically him or parts of him.

When Tsunade tried to teach them some elemental techniques (thinking they were too physically specialized), they ran into some problems. Youki, apparently, is powerfully attuned to one specific thing, and is impossible to change it from that into something else. Using chakra-sensitive cards, she asked them to channel the moldable youki into them to figure out their 'affinity'.

When Naruto pushed the youki into the card, it was unsurprisingly devoured and sprouted a few tiny seedlings looking like mini clones of his Abyssal form.

Riful, however, got hers to bounce around in the air. It alternately floated and plummeted, something she giggled at as she continued to make it rise and fall.

Through this, they were able to discover Riful's apparent affinity for Gravity. In their free time, they would work on creating techniques that would use Naruto's spores and Riful's gravity so that they could say that they could use ninjutsu.

* * *

Near the end of the year, they learned from Tsunade that teams were created by the Hokage to take advantage of strengths of three genin and give them to a jounin who could round them out. As they ticked off the most likely teams, they realized that Riful was an extra person in the class, and that Naruto was likely to be placed on a team with Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke.

This was unacceptable, so they staged a kidnapping of the Haruno girl, dragging her out to the Forest of Death and making it look like a monster from the forest had captured and killed her. Consequently, this was also the day that they ate, and so the genin-to-be at least was useful for something; food.

During the Genin exams, people were concerned that Sakura didn't show up. Riful passed as Kunoichi of the Year, with Sasuke being Rookie of the Year and Naruto becoming Deadlast of the Year due to the teachers changing his grades. They were assigned to Hatake Kakashi as Team 7.

* * *

The next day, Team 7 was the last left in the classroom to be picked up by their teacher.

Riful, deciding she needed a bit more clothing as a kunoichi, wore a pair of spandex black biker shorts underneath a sleeveless pink yukata that went to her knees, a replacement for her sundress. Her hitai-ate was tied around her forehead, with her bangs falling in front of and shrouding the leaf symbol from view. She had no weapon pouches or sheathes, using her hair as a weapon almost always, as she was unsure if she could accurately pull her punches to seem human.

Naruto was simply wearing a pair of loose black shorts that went to his knees, and a forest green short sleeved shirt. Like Riful, he was barefoot. He also had no weapon pouches, instead relying on taijutsu and ninjutsu. Unlike Riful, he was able to pull his punches to seem more human. His hitai-ate was worn on his forehead over his tentacle-like bangs, keeping them plastered more securely to his head.

Sasuke clothed himself in knee-length khaki shorts, a blue high collared shirt, shin braces that ended in his blue shinobi sandals, and wore his hitai-ate on his forehead to keep his bangs out of his face.

When Hatake Kakashi opened the door, he noted something odd. He saw only one student; Uchiha Sasuke, who was looking at the ceiling with a look that combined equal parts jealousy and disdain.

When he looked, he saw something that would probably stay with him for the rest of his days.

Riful and Naruto were playing Extreme Phantom Tag on the ceiling, using moldable youki to stick to the surface while they moved without youki at all to attain enough speed to leave afterimages. Unlike normal Phantom Tag where they merely tapped each other, in Extreme Phantom Tag they were almost fighting. Riful's hair was lashing out, impaling afterimages through the torso and abdomen, while Naruto would appear with a fist through the chest of a Riful afterimage. When Kakashi coughed to get their attention, they stopped what they were doing. Naruto was about to snap an afterimage's neck, while Riful had just emasculated and decapitated another image.

Noticing his presence, they dropped to the ground without a thump to denote their impact on the floor. It was then he noticed that he had two midgets as students, looking no older than twelve or thirteen. Deciding to figure out the oddity if they passed his exam, he called them all to the roof.

* * *

When he used **Shunshin (Body Flicker) **to appear on the roof, he was expecting a ten to fifteen minute wait for them to go up all the stairs. He did not expect to see Riful and Naruto appear only seconds after him. After watching the two play Jankenpon (Rock Paper Scissors) for ten minutes, Sasuke finally appeared, looking faintly out of breath from the climb.

He ordered them to introduce themselves, including their specialty that they were already learning or planning on learning. Noting that nobody was about to speak, he chose to go first.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes are… you don't need to know. My dislikes… eh. I have a lot of hobbies… My dream?" At this point he dissolved into perverted giggling before regaining composure. "My specialization is Sharingan use and ninjutsu."

Sasuke perked up at this, determined to know how an outsider would know how to use the Sharingan (Mirror Wheel Eye). Riful also perked at this, wondering what kind of Kekkei Genkai (Bloodline Limit) the Sharingan was, while Naruto looked at all of them with a calm stare. He spoke next.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My likes are spending time with Riful and Tsunade-sensei, and learning more about my abilities. My dislikes are unobservant people, as well as unintelligent people. Hobbies are training and playing with Riful. Specialties are taijutsu and chakra sensing. My dream is to help Riful with her goals."

Riful gave a light giggle and spoke next.

"I'm in the lead in wins to losses against Naruto! My name is Riful, and I don't have a surname. My likes are spending time with Naruto and Tsunade-sensei, and playing in the sun. My dislikes are annoying people and abrasive personalities. My hobbies are sparring against Naruto and learning from Tsunade-sensei. Specialties are my Kekkei Genkai which allows me to control my hair, and weapon fighting. My dream is to create an army and take over the West!"

Kakashi and Sasuke weren't quite sure if she was joking or not, so they disregarded the statement as a joke and promptly forgot about it. Sasuke, having dismissed his teammates as being not worth his time, introduced himself last in a dramatic manner.

"I am… Uchiha Sasuke. I don't have many likes, and have a lot of dislikes. Hobbies waste time away from training. I plan to specialize in my Sharingan. I don't call it a dream, because I plan to fulfill it. It's more of an ambition… to kill… a certain man."

Riful, feeling a great moment to cause some discord, spoke up before their teacher could.

"That guy you want to kill… he's more attractive than you, isn't he? That must be it! You're _jealous_!"

The only response to her nonsequitour was a scalding glare from the Uchiha, and an odd look from Kakashi. Naruto, however, was another story. He added to the discord in his own calm tones.

"It makes perfect sense. His inability to be attractive has caused him to foster a hatred for the one who was more attractive than him. Kakashi-san, as we are both much more attractive men than he, I suggest we vacate the area before he plans convoluted revenge schemes upon us, as well."

Sasuke, not knowing he was simply being made fun of due to his lack of social skills, simply sulked and looked off to the side. Kakashi, after peering at them with an apathetic gaze, told them to meet him the next day at Training Ground 7 at 5:00 am.

As he took off to the jounin meeting, he didn't notice the secretive smile between Riful and Naruto as they disappeared in a blur of movement.

* * *

Author's Note: Huzzah huzzah, what fun. I noticed that I had turned Naruto into a mini-Riful, and that's just boring. So now I kinda mashed the personalities of Riful, Teresa, and Irene together to make a calm, indifferent demeanor prone to odd ideas that are said with a completely straight face.


	4. Genin Exam

"Talking"

'_Thinking'_

"**Technique"**

Disclaimer: …yeah… I don't own anything alluded to here.

* * *

Genin Exam

Hokage Tower…

Kakashi, as always, was the last jounin to arrive to the meeting. The Sandaime reflected that he should perhaps break the Hatake of that habit, as it was incredibly disrespectful, but quickly pushed that thought away. The other jounin had begun to carry items to waste time with to the jounin meetings; Kurenai had a manga, Anko had a folder detailing her next choice of victims for interrogation, Asuma had strategy games he played with others, and Gai was writing up a training manual for something. As soon as the copy-nin appeared, their respective items were skillfully hidden, and they stood to wait for Kakashi's report. They had already reported their thoughts and inspections of their own genin teams, and were waiting on Team 7's report before they could finally be allowed to leave.

Kakashi, still holding his Icha Icha book, made his report.

"Team 7 is… interesting. I'm not sure what to make of them. The Uchiha is hell bent on revenge with no care for whatever gets in the way. The other two… are psychotic and small for their age. I found them playing 'tag' on the ceiling when I went to pick them up, except they were killing each other's afterimage to try and find the real one. They have already caused Sasuke distrust or hate them by mocking him."

The Sandaime stroked his chin in thought as he and the rest of the room absorbed the information. Puffing his pipe, he spoke.

"What do you make of Naruto's mental state? Is he liable to release the fox?"

The copy-nin tilted his head to the side in thought, speaking after sufficient pondering on the situation.

"He's calm on the outside, but I'm not sure of how he feels. He seems attached to Riful, so maybe if she was harmed something would happen."

Sarutobi sighed, not wishing to have to ask such a favor from his shinobi.

"I want you to trap Riful in a genjutsu tomorrow, see how Naruto reacts to her fainting."

Kakashi saluted him and left with a **Shunshin (Body Flicker)**, leaving a swirl of leaves in his place.

* * *

Next day, 5:00 am…

Riful and Naruto appeared in a blur of motion, looked around for their wayward sensei and teammate, and shrugged before starting their own training. Naruto stood twenty feet in front of Riful, and beckoned her to start.

Strands of hair lashed out at him, missing on either side or even in front of him as he altered the trajectory through youki alignment. Riful steadily increased her concentration, forcing him to work harder and harder to alter the attacks. Manipulation worked purely on force of will. If the manipulator had more willpower than their target, then they could change the direction of attacks. If the target had less willpower, then they needed to put everything into every attack to make it hit.

Energy also had an interesting part to play, as those with an overwhelmingly larger amount of power got a large boost to whatever they were trying to do. If the manipulator had more energy, then they could actually weave themselves into the enemy's energy, allowing trajectory manipulation to become more like puppetry. If the target had much more energy than the manipulator, the only thing they could try to do is change the direction by inches to a few feet.

They continued to apply more and more concentration to their tasks, until both were absolutely riveted on their objective, disregarding everything around them. Riful's hair was still missing, so Naruto began to move forward to close the distance, thus lessening his ability to change trajectory.

The threads came nearer to hitting him as he moved closer, until they were actually brushing against him and removing the outermost layer of skin. It didn't hurt… yet… but any closer and he'd begin to bleed, something they really wanted to avoid. They could be hurt, but they wanted to avoid bleeding at all costs due to the fact that their blood was purple. He was about ten feet away when he stopped.

Sasuke had arrived during their training, and was staring in mute shock at what they were doing. To him, it looked like a trust exercise, wanting to get Naruto and Riful to trust each other more. To him, it looked insane because he could tell that those hair blades were impossibly sharp and the fact that they were actually brushing against Naruto.

Both were straining to exert more force of will than the other, but realized their limits and halted their training. Any more mental battling and Naruto's calm emotions would spike and his youki would fluctuate, or the same would happen to Riful. Both breathed a little heavier than normal as they rested and acknowledged Sasuke's presence. Not in the way that the Uchiha wanted them to, as they merely nodded to him instead of asking for forgiveness for the slight from the day before.

He gave a grunt, either of constipation, acknowledgement, or annoyance, nobody knew.

Naruto and Riful went back to training, only with taijutsu. Instead of working with their taijutsu forms that they normally used, they were working on getting Riful to strike more like a human, as she had spent so long with demonic strength that she forgot how weak humans were. Naruto had no such memory issue, as he could still remember how weak he was as a child, and was able to hit a bit harder than that when he was pulling punches.

To Sasuke, it simply looked like academy style taijutsu training, as that was the style they were using. He was too far away to hear the cracking of bones as Riful tried to hit softer, while Naruto worked on his regeneration to heal the cracked bones and bruised tissue. This also allowed the blonde one to train to keep his meditative calm even while in pain.

For hours the two Abyssals (Naruto having gained the title due to being the _only _Claymore of his class, therefore automatically being ranked 1) trained.

* * *

Near 8:00, their teacher finally arrived, and was surprised at the lack of attention he was getting. Usually when he pulled this trick, the team would be fuming in anger as well as hungry, lowering their ability to fight. Instead, he found the two enigmas on his team sparring in the Academy taijutsu style. Sparring might have been the wrong word for it, though. Naruto was standing there with the same calm on his face as Riful pounded on him.

His enhanced hearing was able to catch a very faint (but very suspicious) cracking sound as her fist hit the blonde's chest, but the boy didn't even flinch. Using the same See no Evil, Hear no Evil tactic, Kakashi simply assumed she cracked a knuckle joint, something not harmful at all.

He cleared his throat, bringing all three genin's attention to him. Sasuke was glaring daggers at him, while the other two had disapproving frowns on their faces, something that caused Kakashi's danger sense to go haywire and shivers of dread to skip down his spine. Riful was the one to speak.

"Kakashi-san, it's disrespectful to arrive late to a meeting you initiated…"

The copy-nin gave a sheepish laugh and provided his excuse.

"Well, you see… there was this old lady who needed help… but then a black cat walked across our path and we had to take the long way to her destination."

Naruto nodded his head as if the meaning of life had just been revealed to him.

"Of course! You and your perverted ways must have taken advantage of the obviously blind old lady, since you're unable to get laid by anyone with the ability to see. That took less than a minute, and the rest of the three hours was spent moping and angsting about your erectile deficiency. It all makes sense, now."

Both Sasuke and Kakashi looked at him as if he was insane, but Riful simply glanced at him with an appraising eye. Making up her own mind, she nodded emphatically, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she added her own opinion.

"I see! That poor, poor old lady. Maybe we should set her up on a date with Asuma-san. I doubt he would be as bad of a lover as Kakashi-san, since he was able to get with Kurenai-san… Speaking of which… Kakashi-san, are you a masochist?"

The copy-nin was quite irritated at how two of his would-be students were questioning his manhood, as well as his ability to please a lady, and therefore ignored Riful's question. He quickly changed the subject.

"It's time for your real genin test."

He pulled out two silver bells, jingled them once, and attached them to his pants on his hip. He pulled the first issue of Icha Icha Paradise out of his weapon pouch, and opened it to a dog eared page, reading as he spoke.

"You have three hours to get these bells from me, starting… now!"

He was actually unable to see Naruto and Riful depart, though he was easily able to track Sasuke's retreat. He remembered his objective, and decided on completing it once Riful attacked him. He wouldn't acknowledge it, but he was unable to sense either Riful or Naruto anywhere.

Sasuke was the first to attack him after a time of waiting, having already spent his patience dealing with his two teammates for three hours. Meaning he was sulking privately that they weren't paying attention to him at all while training, and had thus exhausted his patience.

The Uchiha sprinted out of the foliage, hands forming seals for his favorite fire technique as he fixated on the bells.

"**Katon: Housenka no Jutsu! (Fire Element: Phoenix Fire Flower Technique)"**

The baseball sized globes of fire sped towards Kakashi, who merely coated his book in chakra (something that intrigued the two demons watching) and blocked the fireballs with the cover. He continued reading, deceptively looking as if he wasn't paying attention at all.

Sasuke was enraged at the fact that his favorite technique was blocked by a porn novel of all things, and poured more chakra than was advised into his second technique.

"**Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu! (Fire Element: Great Fireball Technique)**"

The amount of chakra poured into it enlarged the fireball easily to fifteen feet in diameter, though Kakashi had simply used a **Kawarimi** (**Substitution)** to replace himself with a log, appearing outside the destruction zone. He was intrigued that Sasuke had such high chakra for a genin, but noted that he was exhausted from expending so much chakra in one attack.

Using a favored humiliation tactic, Kakashi sunk into the ground.

Sasuke didn't know what hit him when he suddenly felt hands on his ankles, only to blink and see the world as much taller than it was before. He was neck high in the ground, with only his head visible. He glared at his teacher, who only gave him a cycloptic eye smile and patted him on the head.

"**Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu. (Earth Element: Headhunter Technique)** Sasuke-kun, you need to control your anger a bit more.**"**

The Uchiha heir's only response was an increase in the ferocity of his glare.

Kakashi checked the movement of the sun through the sky and calculated that it was close to 10:00 am. He quickly went off to fulfill his mission, since it seemed that Riful and Naruto had either abandoned their teammate or gotten distracted by something shiny.

* * *

Somewhere in the forest…

Kakashi finally found Riful, dancing in the sunbeams through the foliage with a lighthearted smile on her face. His heart clenched at the sight, remembering his deceased teammate, Rin, who liked to do the same back when he was on a team. Riful disappeared from sight, surprising the copy-nin who attributed it to him reminiscing too much to pay attention to her. A lighthearted giggle to his left made him whirl around, not having felt the presence of anyone nearby. Riful had apparently sat next to him and was currently swinging her legs to and fro on the branch, watching him with an interested stare.

"Good morning, Kakashi-san!"

Not taking the time (or effort) to return her greeting, he quickly activated the one hand seal required for the genjutsu he was planning before hopping off.

For Riful, a swirl of leaves blew around her and settled, though she was instantly suspicious as she felt manipulation of her youki near her brain. Deciding to let it play out, she watched as nothing happened for a moment.

Finally, Naruto walked into the clearing she was in, but she knew it wasn't him. For one thing, the manipulation to her brain was making it seem like he had chakra, when he really had youki. For another… he didn't smell like Naruto. Youma had a specific scent that was only able to be smelled by another youma. Or perhaps youma interpreted smells a different way. Either way, it wasn't Naruto.

She tuned out the not-Naruto while it said that she was a monster and a demon, how he could never like her, and never wanted to see her again. Seeing and hearing something that looked like him saying those things did hurt, but not enough. Finally annoyed that this is what the entire manipulation was supposed to do, she broke the control over the energy near her brain and set off to find Naruto.

Kakashi was impressed, as well as a little scared. The annoyance that flickered across her face and in her eyes frightened him more than he would ever admit to anyone, let alone himself.

He quickly set off to find his other student, in an attempt to try the same illusion on him to test his mental stability.

* * *

Only a few minutes into his search, he was stopped by a force that was not his own. His body acted of its own accord, both hands reaching up to his neck. He tried to fight against it, but found something horrifying; thin chains of energy were wrapped around his entire chakra system, turning him into a prisoner and a puppet of his own body!

There were only two possibilities; one of his students must be such a master of genjutsu that they no longer need to affect the brain, and can instead work on other areas of the body… or an enemy nin was nearby.

Naruto, sensing the fury and distress of his would-be teacher, simply let the ties to his target fade. He didn't wish to be found out quite yet, and simply moved quickly and snagged the bells from his hip, the only thing to denote his presence being a wave of air.

Kakashi noticed the wave of air just as the chains broke, preventing him from strangling himself, and felt the slight weight from his hip disappear. The bells were gone.

He quickly moved back to the three training posts, as there was no need to continue the exam when the bells were missing and there was an enemy genjutsu master on the loose. He plucked Sasuke from the ground on the way, and found Riful and Naruto both sitting atop one of the posts, no bells in sight.

Taking a last-minute chance, he unsealed two bento (something similar to a lunch box) and handed them to Riful and Sasuke. He gave instructions to the genin before disappearing to keep watch for any enemy nin nearby.

"You two get lunch because, while Riful didn't attempt to get a bell, she was able to throw off a genjutsu with ease. If you feed Naruto, you all fail. The second round begins after you finish lunch."

He kept tabs on them while spreading his chakra senses out to find the phantasmal enemy nin, and watched with some slight shock as well as a little bit of gratification as both Riful and Sasuke offered food to Naruto, who simply refused.

He quickly came down and, forgoing the dramatic entry and faux anger, told them that they passed. He expected the calm demeanor of Naruto to lift a little, and was rewarded with… nothing. Sasuke smirked, though, and Riful giggled and hugged the blonde, which provoked an upturning of his lips.

He disappeared in a **Shunshin (Body Flicker)**, leaving a puff of black smoke in his wake.

* * *

Hokage's Office…

The Hokage waited patiently for Kakashi to return, once again mulling over the possibility of breaking him of the lateness. This time, only Anko, Asuma, Gai, and Kurenai were waiting on Kakashi. The rest had been dismissed, as nobody really needed to know whether his newest team failed or not.

The copy-nin looked paranoid when he appeared, his one uncovered eye searching the room for any possible adversaries before he made his report.

"Hokage-sama, Team 7 has passed. I encountered an odd phenomenon during the exam, though. It felt like I was captive in my own body, and someone was controlling me to try and strangle myself. Shackles of energy were bound to my chakra system, so I think there was a hostile nin in the forest, hidden. They also took the bells, and since my team didn't have them, I can rule them out."

The Hokage was quite shocked, as were the other four jounin in the room. An intruder, in Konoha? And they had some sort of grudge against the son of the White Fang?

It wasn't too unheard of, actually. Instead of taking Kakashi's life, they had ripped away the feeling of security one has in their home by intruding Konoha undetected. Not only that, but they had cut off and taken the bells without being detected, a clear gesture that they could have killed him or castrated him just as easily.

The Hokage immediately dismissed them, having already heard the other jounin's reports, and Gai already had his genin team. He sent a messenger bird to the ANBU, telling them to step up security in the village to prevent another incident.

* * *

With Naruto…

After being accepted as genin by their instructor, Naruto and Riful disappeared back to their shared two bedroom apartment. Once inside, they started another training exercise; hybrid shifting. To do this was to ascend to their Abyssal form without growing to bijuu-like monstrosities. However, instead of just unlocking their more dangerous abilities, they theorized that with enough training, they could use their adult humanoid forms as the hybrid form.

So far, the most that either could do in this area was having a human torso suspended on tentacles or ribbons. At least they got the coloring right, and they weren't split apart until they got to the hips, which then became the tentacles or ribbons.

Naruto was understandably embarrassed when Riful appeared without clothing the first time they attempted the hybrid transformation. Judging by their features, Riful would have been in her mid twenties, while Naruto was still growing into his, and thus only appeared his real age.

The sensed that Tsunade was on her way, wanting to check up on them after the genin exams, and so they stayed in their hybrid forms. Riful skillfully arranged her lower-back length hair to cover her breasts as they awaited the medic-nin.

When Tsunade opened the door and saw an older-looking Riful, as well as Naruto that actually looked his age, she had to try and release a genjutsu. However, when she noticed that both were half naked, with their lower bodies formed of their respective Abyssal forms, she decided it was some sort of demon thing they were trying and closed the door, adding a silencing technique.

After looking them over with a cursory glance, she had to say something.

"Why can't you transform _with clothing_?"

Both shrugged, causing the med-nin to sigh as she continued analyzing them with a diagnostic technique.

"Well, at least you seem to have gotten the hardest part done. Your human parts are completely, well… human-looking. You even got the organs in the right spots. I guess all you need to do is reform your bones, muscles, organs, and other things for your lower body using your appendages."

Both nodded, and Naruto stated that they would try it later, but right now it was already somewhat unfamiliar and straining on them. It was like squeezing into a small space, and they had to get accustomed to all their ascended power being stuffed into a human-sized package before attempting more.

Their child forms had access to some power, but needed to grow to the Abyssal form to gain access to all of it, which is why Riful would let herself be hit before ascending. The shock the enemy would get from watching the wound not bleed, as well as the weird transformation would normally discourage them from attacking while she was still transforming. However, she was still able to be injured while transforming, and was in fact more vulnerable during it than any other time because she couldn't adequately fight back before she fully ascended.

They continued moving around in their hybrid forms while they informed Tsunade of their test. The med-nin was intrigued at the alignment and manipulation Naruto had done on Kakashi, and asked him to perform it on her. Her advanced chakra senses as a medic felt his moldable youki align with hers, attaching hair thin threads to her chakra system as he manipulated her to dance. She was rather interested in the phenomenon, and noted that it wasn't like voodoo, since he was standing still while moving her. It wasn't like puppetry either, since the threads were indistinguishable from either of their energies, looking like both the chakra and youki at the same time. Anyone who was even able to see them (they were small enough to be invisible to the naked eye) would believe that it was a form of suicide technique, since they connected all over her body to his.

She tried to break them like a genjutsu, and was successful with a few of them, but there were just too many threads. She could probably free an arm, but his control over the rest of her body would strengthen in return. She theorized that it was probably because he had more youki than she had chakra, and thus had more control over her.

She asked him to stop, and he broke the threads, allowing her freedom of movement once again. She laughed when she realized that Kakashi probably thought some hostile nin had attacked him during the exam, and was now paranoid of someone attacking.

She informed both of them that she was working on a technique that would mutate cow or pig guts into a similar form of nourishment for the two demons, but it would take awhile to perfect it. Both were somewhat happy, though mostly indifferent. It was just switching food sources, though they were glad that Tsunade would be less disgusted with their eating, and also glad that eating mutated cow or pig innards would be less risky for capture or investigation than bandits.

She left after assisting Riful to start learning some medical techniques. The female Abyssal wanted to learn how to do diagnostics, as well as enough healing to keep 'research specimens' alive while she studied them. She was somewhat like Orochimaru in that aspect, but at least she wasn't as inhumane as he was. She knew that crippling fear and disgust were tools used to crack specimens into complying, but she also knew that the specimens wouldn't live long in such stressed conditions. She preferred to keep them in a neutral setting and numbing the pain while she studied them. It kept them alive longer, and sometimes they'd actually cooperate without being subdued.

Tsunade was quite revolted when she learned that, in her hundreds of years as a youma, Riful had experimented on quite a few Claymores to find out how they worked. The medic was repulsed when she learned that Riful would often have her former henchman Duph torture them through impalement until they'd finally awaken so that she could learn more about the process of awakening.

When Riful countered that the Claymores were hunting her to kill her so that her corpse could be experimented on by the Organization, and possibly be implanted into another girl to create another Claymore, the medic realized how bad the other world was. It was an arms race in every sense of the word, only the weapons were people. The Abyssals had only settled in the three sections of land by chance, with the Organization being in the East, but all three knew that they needed followers to balance the scales.

Isley, Riful, and Luciela were forced to go to great lengths to continue their survival, especially since the Organization didn't just want to kill them. It wanted to experiment on them and create new Claymores with their remains. The Abyssals were unable to band together, because none of them trusted each other, and for good reason. An alliance would collapse due to treachery and backstabbing, since they'd be very suspicious of one another, and causing preemptive strikes.

The two came to an understanding, as Riful likened it to having an entire force of Hyuuga attacking Kumogakure (Hidden in the Clouds). While killing Kumo would be a bonus, any Hyuuga that was killed or captured would be experimented on to learn more about the Byakugan (All Seeing Eye). Tsunade finally relented and continued to teach Riful after having secured an agreement that, while she would be still experimenting on the Claymores, she would keep it civil and neutral. Mind tactics were allowed, but not causing overwhelming despair to the point of breaking their mind.

If Tsunade was being totally honest with herself, she would have been frightened that she was actually interested in Riful's experiments.

* * *

A few months later…

Riful and Naruto could say only one thing about D ranked missions.

They. Were. Absolutely.

Awesome.

It was a way to learn more about ninja life, make money, and it didn't require combat so they couldn't be singled out as being unusual. Riful wanted to dissect the cat they had to keep capturing, though. Obviously it must have something interesting about it since it could escape the Fire Daimyo's wife on a daily basis. Naruto pondered on how the cat always turned up around Konoha when the Fire Daimyo didn't live within a day's travel (for civilians) of the village. Quite intriguing.

Kakashi was getting more paranoid, though. No news had come of the hostile nin that had taken the bells and manipulated him, and that only made him edgy. He wanted to believe the nin was long gone, but he knew that skilled assassins would do something small to make the target know they were there just to taunt them, and then wait for months or even years on end for the perfect moment to kill them, not letting them have any more hints that they were even existing.

The copy-nin was dealing with some slight insubordination as well. Neither Riful or Naruto would call him –sensei, declaring that, since he hadn't taught them anything yet, he wasn't truly a teacher. He was stuck with 'Kakashi-san'.

They retrieved the Fire Daimyo's Wife's cat for the umpteenth time that month, with Riful scaring it into submission discreetly to make it quit struggling. She was the one who had to hold it this time, as Kakashi and Sasuke would be mauled by the fluffy white beast, while Naruto would just frighten it into submission like her.

They headed to the Hokage's office, with Riful running her fingers through the terrified white cat's fur, whispering sweet nothings such as 'you'll make a fine coat someday' in its ear.

* * *

Hokage's Office…

When they entered the office, the cat leapt out of Riful's arms and into the Fire Daimyo's Wife's awaiting arms with a panicked yowl. It shivered in fear of the two youma, clinging to the overweight woman like a lifeline right up to the point that she started hugging it hard enough to start bruising its ribs. Then it started struggling for release, wondering if the psychological torture or the physical torture was worse.

Poor kitty.

Sarutobi was intrigued by this odd phenomenon, as the cat would always flee away from Naruto or Riful whenever they were the one to carry it. On the other hand, whenever Sasuke or Kakashi carried it, it clung to their face and head with its claws, not wanting to let go. He rationalized to himself that it was because of the seal on Naruto that disturbed the feline, and his close relationship with Riful had caused her to be affected as well. He pitied the poor girl.

Oh, if only he knew…

The Uchiha heir was twitching in barely suppressed fury and annoyance. These D-ranked missions were insults to his clan's name! He bet Itachi never had to do them…

When the elderly Hokage began reading off different missions that could be accepted, Sasuke exploded in a shower of flame.

Figuratively.

"Hokage-sama, I request a higher ranked mission. These _chores_ are ridiculous, and are beneath me... and my team."

The Hokage blinked rapidly, having expected Naruto to be the one to make such an outburst. He looked over to the other two genin to see them looking longingly at the cat in the overweight woman's arms that was letting out mewls of pain. He interpreted it as they wanting to capture the cat again, but in reality they just wanted to show the woman that she was doing it wrong. Obviously, if she was so adamant about causing pain to her pet, she should be doing it the right way. If she moved her arms just a little bit, she could start crushing the cat's internal organs…

The Hokage puffed his pipe, thinking about how the Council was pushing for the Uchiha to get the mandatory missions to be allowed into the Chuunin exams coming up. Sighing in resignation, he pulled out a mission scroll and tossed it to Kakashi and explained.

"I'll allow it. This is a C-rank escort mission. Your client is Tazuna, and he needs protection against bandits and thieves on his way back to Nami no Kuni (Wave Country) as well as while building his bridge. Bring in Tazuna!"

When a somewhat overweight, but still muscular, middle aged civilian man entered, Naruto and Riful analyzed him. He was giving off signals of fear through his twitching and chakra, and he seemed to have been stressed a lot recently. His hair was graying, he was sweating even in the temperate climate, and he had put on weight. The sake bottle in his hand didn't help. After fully analyzing the client, Naruto had one thing to say.

"Damn. Now another person is on Sasuke's hit list of more attractive men."

* * *

Author's Note: Huzzah, huzzah. Wave at last. I tried to show that Riful is also quite dark, yet keep her in character and show her reasons for acting like she did.


	5. Of Shinobi Life and Butchery

"Talking"

'_Thinking'_

"**Technique"**

Disclaimer: I do not own anything alluded to in any of my stories.

* * *

Of Shinobi Life and Butchery

When Tazuna had learned that the team to protect him was comprised of two midgets, a girly-boy, and a prematurely aging pervert, a feeling of impending doom loomed over him. The middle-aged man started to shiver in anxiety, and was hard pressed to not have a psychotic break then and there to either attempt to kill everyone with his sake bottle or fall into the fetal position.

Riful and Naruto took note of this strange behavior, pondering on why, exactly, their client seemed so fearful of this mission. They were both looking forward to a combat encounter, as Riful was beginning to feel rusty after her lack of fighting in the past few decades, her recent killings normally dying via ambush. She restrained the urge to pout at the unfairness of the situation; why couldn't bandits be more aware? At least they'd put up a fight, then. She felt like she was kicking a puppy every time she killed one for food.

Naruto directed a calm gaze at the nervous wreck of a client, speaking his mind. Unfortunately for them, his mind had some… interesting thoughts.

"We will exterminate your enemies in a blaze of glory, bloodshed, and finely aged cheese. Do not worry, Tazuna-san."

Sasuke, marginally resistant to such statements, was able to restrain his urge to stare at the blonde as if he had lost his mind. Sarutobi, Kakashi, and Tazuna were not so resistant. Riful, however, cocked her head to the side inquisitively.

"What kind of cheese?"

It was at this point that Tazuna started praying for Gato instead, as clearly he had psychopathic children in his employ.

* * *

The next day…

Team 7 and Tazuna departed towards Nami no Kuni (Wave Country) with only a small hitch when Kakashi decided to be late once again. This event exposed Tazuna to the strange occurrence of Riful frowning, prompting him to pray harder for Gato, not knowing exactly why the little girl gave off vibes of 'I'm going to butcher you while giggling sweetly' whenever she frowned.

The two Abyssal Ones were not worried, per se, but quizzical of how they were going to feed during their month long mission. They supposed they could go scouting for more bandits, but wouldn't their team notice their disappearance? If complications arose, they at least would figure out a question that had been nagging at them.

Which tastes better; Hatake Kakashi, or Uchiha Sasuke?

Naruto was betting on Kakashi, due to having the advantage of aging gracefully whereas Sasuke's taste might have spoiled due to his constant brooding. Riful was inclined to agree with him, preferring a more 'mature' taste in food.

While they were ruminating on their woes of food sources, they noticed two human ninja hiding underneath an illusion of a puddle. Nearly cackling with delight, as their food problem had been solved, they proceeded to _prance_ forward towards the puddle. Kakashi, sensing chakra from the puddle, started to call out to warn them only to stare in mute horror.

Riful's hair lashed out with two threads, one stabbing through the Demon Brother Meizu's chest, the second taking advantage of his stunned (and pierced) shock by decapitating him. Naruto moved quick enough to leave an afterimage in his wake, performing a swift high kick to the Demon Brother Gouzu's chin, decapitating him as well. He caught the falling head; part of the spine still attached to the neck, and held it in front of him, staring into the unseeing eyes. Using his hands, he grasped the chin and manipulated it to talk, providing a philosophical voice for the impromptu puppet.

"To be or not to be…that is the question."

Riful broke down in giggles, while the rest of Team 7 as well as Tazuna were a light tinge of green in disgust. Tazuna now had irrefutable proof that he had psychotic children in his employ, and vowed to keep one eye open at night. Kakashi was horrified at how such brutality didn't faze his two midget students at all, though secretly he was glad that he didn't have to give them 'The Talk'.

For ninja, 'The Talk' was not about sex. It was instead a 'How To' for repressing or dealing with guilt due to killing. The Academy already took care of 'The Talk' for sex, seeing as how it (used to) teach kunoichi how to seduce a man for interrogation and assassination missions. Nowadays they just taught them flower arranging.

Sasuke was staring at his teammates in horror, remembering the bloody carnage that was the Uchiha Massacre that had been burned into his mind through Itachi's **Tsukuyomi (God of the Moon) **technique.

Disregarding his blonde student's bloodstained hands, Kakashi systematically sealed both heads into a sealing scroll to be traded in for the bounty upon their heads. He was about to burn the corpses, but hesitated, not wanting to traumatize the client or Sasuke any more by making them smell burnt flesh. Pondering on the dilemma, it was easily solved by Naruto offering to 'deal with' the remains. Riful accompanied him to 'deal with' the corpses into the forest, while the remaining members of Team 7 and their client waited patiently. Kakashi took this time to verbally interrogate their client for why he seemed so resigned to his fate, or how he seemed to have _expected _a nuke-nin to attack.

After setting the corpses far enough into the forest to avoid anyone running across them, they returned and explained away the lack of burnt flesh smell by stating they used Riful's unique ability to segment the bodies and bury the pieces all over the forest, explaining that they didn't have a fire technique at that time.

Kakashi allowed it, but mentally noted that he should burn the corpses in the future. While the Demon Brothers were only C-rank nuke-nin, and thus not containing important secrets, higher ranked ones would need to be properly dealt with to avoid hunter-nin learning secrets of a corpse.

They continued on their way with Sasuke and Tazuna averting their eyes from the blood spray decorating the blonde, as well as his bloodstained hands. The Uchiha silently vowed to become stronger, to be able to kill without remorse like his teammates (and his brother).

* * *

They were halted once again when a whirling slab of metal required them to duck and cover to avoid being sliced in half at the waist. Kakashi was forced to tackle Tazuna, due to the civilian lacking shinobi reflexes, and a few hairs were cut from Sasuke's head due to not being quick enough. When they stood back up, they noticed a grey-skinned man standing atop the slab of metal that apparently had an edge to it, and was halfway buried in a tree trunk.

He seemed to be around 6'0", with a scratched Kiri (Mist) hitai-ate wrapped around the side of his head. His face was masked by cleverly wrapped bandages, obscuring the nose and below from view. He had black and white camouflage leg and arm warmers, blue shinobi sandals and pants, and an unzipped green jounin vest without a garment underneath it. His voice was rough and slightly grating as he hopped off the slab of metal, wrenching it from the tree and causing it to fall behind him with a loud crash.

"Sharingan no Kakashi, eh? No wonder the Demon Brothers failed."

In an attempt to cower his students to prevent them from engaging a powerful opponent in combat, Kakashi answered the challenge.

"Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist. A-ranked nuke-nin from Kirigakure (Hidden in the Mist) and former Swordsman of the Mist. What are you doing here?"

The large man stalked towards them, zanbato held within one hand as he replied.

"I'm here to kill that bridge builder. No hard feelings, eh? Just hand him over and I won't slaughter your genins at the same time."

Riful and Naruto stood off to the side, watching impassively as the two ninja clashed. They remembered Tsunade stating that the Swordsmen of the Mist had incredibly durable and strong swords, and decided that they would have to attempt to either gain an alliance with the nuke-nin to learn more about the swords, or simply kill him and take his sword. They were rather intrigued at how weak-hearted Sasuke was being, bringing a kunai up to his own neck in a suicidal gesture to escape the passive output of killing intent of the two battling shinobi. Their instructor had apparently noticed, and made an idiotic move, wasting a large amount of chakra to blast the mist away from him in a medium sized circle, speaking of something about not letting his comrades die.

To the two youma, the battle looked more like a poorly choreographed play, with the ninjutsu and even physical attacks being quite transparent. Sure, the Academy had taught them to speak the name of the technique to focus the mind upon the moment of release so as to stabilize it, but they said 'speak' not 'yell loud enough for people many meters away to hear you'. However annoying the predictable battle tactics were, Naruto was rather intrigued by the Suiton (Water Element) techniques used by both Zabuza and then copied and returned by Kakashi.

Riful, however, had set her eyes upon the Sharingan (Mirror Wheel Eye) and was determined to learn more about it. The properties of the eyes were very interesting, though the glaring weakness of 'just obscure their vision' dampened her spirits marginally.

Both watched, impassive as three senbon punctured the nuke-nin's neck in a way that halted the pulse and paralyzed the body, according to Tsunade's medical teachings. If left for more than three minutes, the oxygen deprivation began to cause brain damage, though if the needles were removed before then the target could recover. Unfortunately, the technique caused strain upon the circulatory and nervous system, requiring at least a week of rest to heal the damaged arteries and nerve points. Otherwise, exercise could cause a random gush of blood to start spouting out the side of the person's neck, which was a no-no.

The young looking hunter-nin collected the body, disappearing with a **Shunshin (Body Flicker)**, solidifying Naruto and Riful's thoughts of the hunter-nin being an accomplice. Riful cracked a grin in good humor when Kakashi collapsed on top of Sasuke from chakra exhaustion, forcing the Uchiha to carry him around while Tazuna directed them towards his home.

* * *

After making polite introductions to Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, Naruto and Riful politely declined to be fed. At the young-looking woman's confused look, they stated that they had plenty of rations, and that she should not exhaust her supply of food, given how poorly the country was doing. Tsunami was rather touched by their concern, though she did make dinner for Sasuke, and informed them that she would make breakfast the next morning for Kakashi as well.

When they had stepped into the dining room to sit at the table, Naruto's blood spattered clothing and hands came into illumination, prompting a squeak of terror from the kind woman and stupefied gaping from her young son. The blonde looked down at himself and respectfully excused himself from the table to change his clothing and wash up. Inari, Tsunami's son, was horrified at the nonchalance that the child-like blonde had shown at his blood spattered form, and was unable to bring himself to start an angst rant. Clearly, even to the child's perception, the blonde must have been so accustomed to blood that he didn't even notice it on himself, meaning that Naruto had killed far too many people in his lifetime.

Dinner was a quiet affair, and afterwards both Naruto and Riful graciously thanked their hostess for allowing them to sleep in her house-turned-inn before retiring for the night. After the house had gone to sleep, they snuck out to the corpses of the Demon Brothers and satisfied their own hunger, returning less than an hour later and slipping back into their beds without disturbing anyone.

* * *

The next day…

When Kakashi awoke, he found Riful's chocolate brown eyes staring scant inches from his face, and promptly suppressed an instinctual urge to behead her for being so close to an awakening ninja. In a theatrically creepy voice, Riful spoke to the awakened ninja.

"Breakfast is reeeaaaady, Kakashi-san. You need to regain your strength to fight against Zabuza-san and Hunter-nin-san."

Kakashi was too tired to wonder how his student had taken notice of how the hunter-nin was an accomplice, guessing that she was intelligent and observant. He allowed Riful to carry most of his weight, leaning on her for support until he could get a pair of crutches to help him move around. He was rather surprised at how easy she was able to support his weight, not flinching or struggling in the slightest.

At the table, Riful assisted him in seating himself and set off to find a pair of crutches. She disappeared in a blur of motion towards the town close by, heading directly towards the hospital.

While she was gone, Kakashi relayed how Zabuza was still alive to Sasuke and Naruto. The blonde merely nodded sagely and made a rather wry remark.

"Zabuza-san is rather amateur in his swordplay. Riful is much more skilled in that area."

Neither Sasuke nor Kakashi were able to tell if he was joking or not. They prayed he was, as the mental image of Riful wielding the Kubikiri Houchou (Head Chopping Cleaver) was horrifying in that it seemed so _right_. Both quickly suppressed that mental image with a vengeance, not wishing to think of it anymore for fear of mental scarring.

Riful returned with a pair of crutches in under an hour, obviously successful in her endeavor. With a new way of being mobile open to him, Kakashi was able to _finally _start instructing his team, fearing for their wellbeing during the mission.

Unfortunately, both Naruto and Riful proved to be quite capable in tree walking and water walking, and thus still refrained from calling him –sensei.

Kakashi, knowing that the hunter-nin was uninjured and possibly looking for a chance to assassinate him and his team, sent for reinforcements by using a quick moving dog summon to carry the message.

* * *

A few days later…

It was quite a surprise when Shizune arrived at the door of the large house, dressed for battle. Her black kimono had been replaced with a green jounin vest that was zipped over a long sleeved blue shirt, with the sleeves ending past her fingertips to disguise hand seals and throwing needles. She was wearing black shinobi pants, and retained her kunoichi sandals that had a blunt three inch heel to them. Her Konoha hitai-ate held her bangs out of her face, and though she looked completely dressed for war, she held her hands together in front of her, acting as polite as can be.

Tsunami, oddly, relished the company, as she had been wondering if there were any female shinobi that came near to the same rank Kakashi did. The subject matter of the household had been 'famous shinobi', and so many of them were male that she couldn't help but feel as if she should take up her frying pan, learn some ninjutsu, and fight off Gato herself.

Shizune herself was an interesting woman. She was unfailingly polite at all times, assisting Kakashi in healing quicker by performing a few chakra transfusions and assisting the team in their training. She helped Sasuke perfect the tree walking and started him on water walking, giving him a few pointers as to how to do it better, seeing as how Kakashi's instructions were basically 'figure it out yourself'.

Secretly, she was somewhat spying on the two genin who had managed to capture her mentor's interest. She knew of Tsunade's development on a strange medical technique to mutate cow and pig entrails, but wasn't sure as to what end. There had to be something very special about the two if they were able to hold Tsunade's interest for so many years. She had noticed how Riful hadn't grown at all in the years she had seen her, and was quite skeptical of how that had come about. She had also noticed that Naruto had quit growing as well, and secretly she was saddened by that fact. He would have turned out to be quite the looker when he was older.

Of course, whenever that last thought caught her, she immediately repressed it with extreme prejudice. It wouldn't do to start fantasizing about how someone half her age would look in a few years, would it?

She was on a midnight patrol, skillfully disguised as a simple walk to clear her head, when she saw something amazing on top of the ocean.

* * *

With Naruto and Riful…

They had sensed the med-nin's approach for quite some time, and Riful had an idea. She knew how attached Tsunade was to her assistant and apprentice, Shizune, and she had noted how Tsunade was becoming interested in what youma were like. She had also suspected that the reason that the legendary med-nin was working on the mutation technique was not because she was squeamish about their diet, but an ulterior motive of Tsunade's. She supposed that Tsunade didn't recognize the subconscious motive, and Riful would let her learn about it in time.

Planning for every possible situation, she decided that they should plant a seed of…something… within Shizune's mind. To this end, while they were becoming accommodated to their hybrid forms (and practicing water walking in the hybrid forms), they allowed Shizune to catch a quick glimpse of them, long enough to recognize that they looked similar to the Naruto and Riful that she knew before disappearing in a burst of speed. They had moved quickly enough to avoid leaving an afterimage, causing Shizune to believe she was daydreaming.

The seed had been planted.

* * *

A few days later…

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the point of view, youma didn't need as much sleep as humans. Abyssals needed even less sleep. Taking great care to avoid startling Shizune, they disappeared to go training in the middle of the night. They came across a young woman picking herbs in a forest glade, though both could sense her large amount of chakra, and how skilled she was at hiding it. She was around 5'2", with long brown hair and kind brown eyes, and was wearing a light pink yukata.

Taking note of her quick, precise movements that wasted no energy, they suspected she was a med-nin or some deviation of it. Naruto and Riful linked together their arms and entered the glade, calling out to the kunoichi.

"Good morning, pretty lady!"

Said kunoichi made a movement to reach into her sleeves for a weapon, having been startled as she couldn't feel their approach. When she noticed it was simply a pair of children, she relaxed, believing her inability to sense them stemmed from the fact that they weren't ninja. She had not detected nor seen them when she was watching over Zabuza, and thus did not recognize them. Naruto and Riful, having left their headbands back at the house to prevent damage to them from hybrid shifting, did nothing to dissuade her from that notion.

The kunoichi gave a gentle smile, and explained that she was picking herbs for a precious person who was injured, and she hoped he would get well soon. The two said nothing, and watched as she picked the herbs, mentally ticking off special herbs that Tsunade had told them about. From such a close proximity, they were able to match the kunoichi's unique chakra 'fingerprint' to that of the hunter-nin who had taken Zabuza away.

They began to play a toned down version of tag, moving just a bit quicker than children their aesthetic age would move while the kunoichi continued to pick herbs. As soon as she was done picking herbs, she stood gracefully and gave them another soft smile.

"My name is Haku, and I'm a boy."

Both peered curiously at the self proclaimed 'boy', then shrugged and introduced themselves. As Haku walked away, Naruto and Riful waved goodbye and walked off to continue their training.

* * *

The next day…

Kakashi, having felt an odd apprehensive atmosphere weighing down the air that morning, asked Shizune to guard the house-inn while Team 7 escorted Tazuna to work that day. The med-nin complied, having felt the same pressure upon the air that morning, and sharpened her weapons on a mat in the dining room, away from the table. Breakfast was a very somber affair for Tsunami and Inari. They could only watch in numb disbelief at the formerly polite med-nin who was using quick, precise gestures to coat the tips of her senbon in a paralyzing toxin, having finished sharpening her kunai.

For Tsunami, this was a window in which to view the life of a kunoichi. Deception was the name of the game, and all living creatures were potential enemies. To simply survive, one must not only learn to kill, but learn to fit in with all walks of life unnoticed. Watching such a gentle young woman prepare herself to fight for her life broke something deep in Tsunami, bringing tears to her eyes as she realized just what kind of world they lived in.

For Inari, this showed him exactly how 'cool' ninja were, disillusioning the child. To hide yourself from the world around you through a carefully constructed façade, willing to strike at a moment's notice. To sleep with one eye open, wondering when your ally would become your enemy.

When the back door to the dining room was kicked open by two hired thugs carrying katanas, Shizune didn't even blink. Two needles from her prepared senbon pile disappeared, and two bodies hit the floor.

Tsunami sprinted to the bathroom, and spent ten minutes dry heaving at the image of wide, unseeing eyes, with a single needle stuck through the heart.

Inari watched in detached fear as the kunoichi took measured steps to the mercenaries, removed the needles, and placed them back into the unprepared pile after wiping off the blood.

* * *

On the bridge…

Knocked out bodies of hired construction workers, obscured from view by an obnoxious white mist greeted Team 7. Riful inwardly sighed at the predictable tactics the nuke-nin was using, attempting to intimidate them and make them lose their nerve. Naruto observed the surroundings serenely, noting that the workers hadn't been killed, suggesting that one of the nuke-nin didn't wish to be a murderer. He was betting that it was Haku, the hunter-nin. She had seemed much too gentle to bloody her hands unnecessarily.

The forms of the hunter-nin, still masked, and Zabuza faded into view. Naruto was forced to stifle a snort of disbelief that they had given up the advantage they had so melodramatically shoved into Team 7's faces. Riful was pondering on the possibilities that one of the two was going to make a show of power, and that it would be much more intimidating should the visage of their attacker be shown during said show of power.

She turned out to be right. After the apparently mandatory witty banter had been completed, Zabuza formed a single hand seal, prompting ten copies of himself to coalesce from the mist and surround Sasuke, who was shaking. The Uchiha, in standard Uchiha pride and arrogance, had smirked and declared that he was shaking in 'excitement' before using his newly learned chakra control to augment his legs and slash each clone with a kunai in a blur of motion.

Zabuza commented on the Uchiha's speed, saying he might be a match for his accomplice, and turned towards said masked accomplice.

Unfortunately, the accomplice was currently very red in the face behind the mask, courtesy of two hands on her chest. A child-like blonde was standing in front of her, an eyebrow raised in silent question as he voiced his thoughts and squeezed.

"You know, for a boy you have a very womanly figure, Haku-san."

The 'hunter-nin' gave a startled squeak at such an invasion of her personal space, hopping backwards instinctively. Kakashi gave a giggle not unlike that of a schoolgirl, while Sasuke attempted to remove the image from his mind. Attractive women who could probably kill him had no place in his mindset, as its priorities were focused on Itachi. Zabuza looked for the third genin, but found none in sight only to hear yet another unbecoming squeak out of his apprentice-slash-accomplice.

Riful had appeared behind Haku, giving her backside a tentative squeeze. She currently had a hand to her chin in a contemplative position, musing aloud.

"Naruto is right. How exactly did you get such a firm backside? Zabuza-san, is there some form of special training just for that?"

The Demon of the Mist could only gape in stunned disbelief at the two _children _who had managed to embarrass his accomplice to the point where she wouldn't be able to fight in top form. He had to give them some credit, as it was audacious, risky, and genius. Many ninja attempted to cripple the opponent through fear, but only true masterminds could do the same damage through embarrassment. Drawing his zanbato from his back, he barked orders at Haku to engage the two troublesome genin, leaving Sasuke to guard Tazuna while he attacked Kakashi. Giving a malicious leer, he concentrated more chakra and thickened the mist.

Haku, after finally regaining composure, was quite confused. Neither of the two had moved to attack her, simply gazing at her with curiosity. Not willing to look such an opportunity in the face, she quickly formed one handed seals, much to the interest of Riful.

"**Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suishou (Secret Technique: 1000 Water Needles of Death)"**

From the mist itself, hundreds (possibly even a thousand as the technique boasted) of senbon-shaped water constructs formed and froze. After but a split second of intimidation factor, the needles converged. Haku gazed sadly at the cloud of debris created by the attack. She didn't truly wish to kill such innocent children (their actions earlier had none of the perverted undertones she would have imagined), but it was for Zabuza-san, and she would never disobey him. She was about to turn to assist her mentor when the debris cleared, showing a sluggishly whirling mass of black threads that retracted into Riful's head, leaving both genin unscathed. Unnerved at the casual grace with which her technique was blocked, Haku slid a single senbon into her palm. Her eyes hardened behind the mask as her heart frosted over, willing to kill for the one who gave her life some significance.

Before she could advance, an intense pain blossomed in her stomach, throwing her into the air. She was able to glimpse a flash of blonde hair before her world exploded into pain.

Riful watched impassively from the ground as Naruto proceeded to pummel the hunter-nin with strong kicks, pulling much of his strength to prevent severely harming the kunoichi. She wasn't sure how Zabuza would take to his apprentice being killed, and she wished to learn more about the properties of his sword and how durable it really was. Unfortunately, the death of his subordinate might defile any peaceful discussion of the swords.

When the kunoichi was a bruised mass of cracked bones, she finally passed out. Stretching languidly, Naruto hoisted the fallen kunoichi over his shoulder, careful of her wounds and proceeded back to Riful.

Chocolate eyes analyzed the damage done, the small girl performing a few hand seals in a blur of motion, gently coaxing the moldable youki into the correct patterns.

"**Shosen no Jutsu (Mystical Palm Technique)"**

A green bubble of energy surrounded both of her hands, flickering blue and yellow every now and then as she held the technique stable with her youki. She placed both hands on Haku's midsection, letting the regenerating energy (based off of the youma ability to regenerate wounds instead of merely healing them over with scar tissue) flow towards the most damaging of wounds. After healing some internal bleeding, as well as uterine damage that would have prevented the kunoichi from ever having children if it had not been healed, Riful let the technique dissipate. Due to the shock and pain of the reception of the injuries, Haku would be unconscious for a few hours yet regardless of the healing.

They heard a sound of mocking clapping from the unfinished end of the bridge, and the mist lifted.

A rather pudgy, balding man holding a pimp cane in one hand, the other being in a cast, was the source of the clapping. He apparently was able to clap even with a cast on, something that both Riful and Naruto admired. Ignoring the annoying man's ranting, they assessed their teacher and the swordsman for damage. Zabuza's shoulder tendons had been cut cleanly with a kunai, disabling his arms. Kakashi's right forearm was snapped cleanly in two, with a piece of bone jutting out of his flesh at an angle. Aside from those major injuries, they were a mass of shallow cuts and bruises.

Riful noted the large battalion of mercenaries backing up the cowardly businessman, and (correctly) deduced that they were there to kill everyone. This was unacceptable, as she wanted that damn sword. Disregarding how everyone (sans Naruto) stared at her as she walked to the injured nuke-nin, she clasped both hands behind her back and _chirped_ at the Demon of the Mist.

"Excuse me, Zabuza-san. I'm just going to borrow this for a moment."

With that said, she lifted Kubikiri Houchou (Head Chopping Cleaver) with a single hand, swung it once or twice to test it, and _flounced _off towards the mercenaries. What followed next could not accurately be called a blood bath, as that would be presuming that the blood was _able to land on her_ as she hacked a bloody swathe through the ranks of mercenaries. Her body blurred at how fast she was moving, the blood unable to stick to the slab of metal she was swinging due to the speed of her movement.

A good portion of the mercenaries were dismembered before they finally started attacking the small girl. Slamming the zanbato end first into the ground in front of her (consequently forcing it halfway to the hilt into the concrete), her hands blurred into the motion of hand seals (with quite a few created off the top of her head to prevent the copying of the Sharingan).

"**Hijutsu: Shuusei Juuryoku (Secret Technique: Revise Gravity)"**

For the onlookers (sans Naruto) of the technique, they would later recall that the world broke at that moment, since the mercenaries lifted off the ground and floated over ten feet in the air, unable to gain enough friction to move. Naruto peered up at them with interest in his eyes, standing aside to let Riful have full reign of this encounter, as he had been the one to engage Haku.

The small girl gave a childish giggle as she leapt from body to body, unaffected by the shift in gravity, and sliced the mercenaries in twain. Blood, organs, and missing limbs floated weightlessly in the air as she called out a small rhyme.

"One little, two little, three little bandits. Four little, five little, six little bandits. Seven little, eight little, nine little bandits…"

Her hauntingly immature rhyme continued as the floating mass of mercenaries quickly became a floating mass of blood and gore. After but a few minutes, Riful dropped from the bloody mass and released her technique, causing the gathering of bisected bodies and blood to splash against the concrete, spraying blood and gore over her body and the sword she had 'borrowed'.

As she held the sword in front of her face in contemplation, Naruto used the shocked atmosphere to his advantage and decapitated Gato with an uppercut, catching the falling head as he walked back to Riful. Once standing next to her, he leaned forward and swiped his tongue along the flat of the blade, licking up a bit of blood. Smacking his lips, he spoke loud enough for his declaration to reach the ears of the numb onlookers.

"Tastes like cheese."

Riful gave a light laugh, trying it herself before nodding in assent and adding her own two cents.

"Finely aged."

Starting at that moment, and for quite a few years after (until the time of his death), Tazuna was wracked with hysterical fits of sobbing laughter, his sanity fractured by the absurdity and the massacre. Many believed he was simply crying in happiness while laughing at Nami no Kuni (Wave Country) being freed from oppression, and the timing blamed upon the random bouts of reminiscing of an old man. It wouldn't be until near the end of his life when it finally dawned upon Tsunami that his nightmares and hysterical fits were linked to the Massacre on the Bridge as it would be called.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm not sure _what _I was channeling. All I can say is that it was _fun_. Also, Gravity translates into a very kickass word in Japanese. Juuryoku...


	6. Corpses Not Just For Burying

"Talking"

'_Thinking'_

"**Technique"**

Disclaimer: …yeah. Done these before.

Corpses - Not Just For Burying

* * *

The aftermath of Riful's massacre upon the hired mercenaries was filled with mixed reactions. Many citizens, mainly ones that hadn't seen it first hand, wanted to hail her as a national hero. Those that were able to see it from the sidelines, mainly Tazuna, wanted her out of the country as soon as absolutely possible. Why trade one monster for another?

Zabuza slipped away in the shocked silence, using a complex maneuver to flip Haku onto his shoulder, as his arms were useless until she could heal them. He slid a foot under her stomach and kicked upward, moving forward and letting her body fold over his shoulder as he took off, wanting to be out of there as soon as possible.

He was unable to retrieve his sword.

* * *

Later that day…

A bloody trail cut through the woods, though it was neither violent nor injured in origin. Kakashi, Sasuke, and Tazuna stayed a very healthy distance away from the blood-soaked Riful as she dripped blood on their way back to the house. Kubikiri Houcho (head chopping cleaver) slung over her shoulder, consequently digging a trench in her wake due to its length compared to her height, she looked like a horror movie villain.

Granted, her diminutive form and child-like appearance _somewhat_ deterred that notion.

They arrived at the house-turned-inn with little fanfare, with Naruto knocking on the door, given that he doubted Tsunami would want bloody fist-marks on the door.

Shizune, for her part, didn't scream in surprise when she opened the door. She jumped in surprise, and squeaked in surprise, but definitely didn't scream.

"Good morning, Shizune-san! Please excuse me while I go wash up."

Her polite greeting said, Riful hoisted the sword off her back (she didn't want to tear up the nice flooring) and carried it with her to the bathroom.

"We come bearing gifts, Shizune-san."

Shizune was quite unprepared, after just seeing a child _soaked_ and _dripping_ in other peoples' blood, to have another child offer her the head of a dictator. As such, she could not be blamed when her mind shut down temporarily, body moving on its own and supplying an automatic reply.

"That's nice, Naruto-kun. I'm sure Tsunami-san will be quite elated."

The blonde nodded in assent, heading into the house. Kakashi, Sasuke, and Tazuna stood before her, and the horrified scream of Tsunami further in the house broke Shizune out of her trance-like state.

"Please come inside. Kakashi-san, I need to fix your arm. Are either of you two harmed?"

As Sasuke and Tazuna shook their heads in the negative, Shizune sat Kakashi down and set his bone with a sickening snapping sound. For his part, the Copy-nin didn't yell in pain, but his visible eye _did_ wince. The house was silent as she performed the seals to start a healing technique that would encourage bone cell growth.

Privately, both Tsunami and Tazuna couldn't wait for the shinobi to leave.

* * *

The next day…

Wanting to learn more of the swords wielded by the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, Riful decided to find Zabuza and ask him herself. Naruto, noting the tense silence that surrounded the house the night before, went with her so that he could at least be amused.

The discussion did not quite go as expected.

* * *

Hideout…

The nuke-nin place of residence was tastefully done, and looked more like a comfortable house than a hideout. Two stories tall, it was painted a variety of greens and browns so as to camouflage it into the surrounding woodland. Disinclined to knock, they let themselves in, locating two sources of chakra upstairs.

The inside was spartanly furnished, which was sensible, given that it was most likely a temporary residence.

Opening the bedroom door, Riful was greeted with a kunai, which she managed to dodge for the most part. The knife impacted the wall next to the door. A thin line appeared on her cheek where the knife had grazed her, bleeding purple for less than a second as it sealed itself. The damage was done, however, as a small amount of purple blood dripped down her cheek.

Across the spacious room, Zabuza stared in alarm, while Haku's eyes widened in fright. A single word escaped the swordsman's lips.

"Youma."

Riful tilted her head to the side, eyes calculating and demeanor somewhat serious.

'_If they escape…my vacation will be over.'_

Truly, it would be quite annoying to have to continually kill off people trying to hunt her down. Not to mention…how was she going to research the Sharingan (Mirror Wheel Eye) if Konoha kept trying to kill her? So aggravating...

"I was going to ask you about your sword…but now you have to die."

Zabuza, knowing it would be impossible for both he and his apprentice to escape the situation, charged forward, kunai in hand.

"Haku! Run!"

The Hyoton (Ice Element) user shook her head in dissent, forming one handed seals as the air chilled.

"No, Zabuza-sama. I will protect you until my death."

Both child-like beings blurred into motion, with Riful engaging Haku, and Naruto engaging Zabuza.

Using his youki manipulation, Naruto deflected the kunai swing to the side, ending the nuke-nin's swing by catching his wrist. The swordsman tossed the kunai from one hand to the other and swung downwards, aiming to sever the deceptively small hand from the rest of the arm.

The only motion the blonde made was a blink of his eyes, which was answered by a howl of pain from Zabuza.

Using threads of his youki attached to the nuke-nin's chakra system, Naruto had repelled the attack, redirecting the kunai into the swordsman's arm.

Channeling chakra through his body, Zabuza dulled the pain and wrenched his arm out of the blonde's grip. Taking a chance, he jumped out of the open window, closely followed by his adversary.

* * *

With Riful…

"Pretty! Is your technique part of a bloodline?"

If Haku was honest with herself, she would highly doubt that this little girl was a demon. She looked honestly curious about the mirrors of ice surrounding her, much like a child watching festival fireworks. However, she saw her bleed purple blood, and thus she was irrefutably demonic in origin, regardless of however she acted.

Steeling her determination, Haku reflected from mirror to mirror, tossing the metal needles towards vital points in the human body, hoping that demonic anatomy was close to human anatomy in weak points. Her efforts were rebuffed at every angle by the thin ribbons swatting the needles out of the air before they got too close.

"Haku-san, why do we have to fight?"

She paused inside the mirror, politely replying to the demon's question.

"Because you are a demon, and therefore are a threat."

"Is that what your village accused you of, as well?"

That…hit a little too close to home. She was violently reminded of Kirigakure's Bloodline Purges, as well as the similarity of their views to her current ones, and flinched visibly in the mirror. Her hand trembled and, though she inwardly wilted at the hypocrisy, she had a task set before her and she was determined to do it.

"Enough of your deceptions! Show your true form!"

Shrugging her shoulders, Riful did exactly that. She grew rapidly, seeming to age a decade within a few seconds as her body shifted. Her sundress stretched almost to the breaking point across her chest, appearing more like a small shirt than a dress, while the spandex shorts she was wearing looked almost scandalous on her adult form.

This…was not what Haku was expecting. She was expecting green skin, warts, evil eyes, multiple limbs, serrated teeth, and a drooling mouth just wanting to tear into human flesh. She was faced with an adult-looking Riful with clothes that only barely fit her. Her shock gave Riful enough time to strike.

The woman cupped one hand in front of her, palm up, and seemed to not move at all. In reality she had extended her fingers and strengthened them, struck, and retracted them, moving quick enough that the unaided human eye wouldn't be able to follow. Every mirror surrounding her cracked and shattered, knocking Haku onto the floor where her kunoichi reflexes flipped her upright, senbon at the ready.

The adult Riful swiped a hand in front of her, clawing at an imaginary adversary. Normally, this would have no effect, however, at the beginning of the swing, her fingers elongated and sharpened, slicing through the wall in a direct course towards the kunoichi.

Haku was able to evade the strike by dashing forward, aiming to stab Riful in the heart with the needle, only to be blocked by a forearm catching her own in mid strike, and then the fight was on.

Kicks, elbows, and needle strikes rained upon Riful in a flurry, Haku's incredible speed making her body blur with the attacks. Each and every strike was blocked in a non-lethal manner, Riful's superior speed allowing her to analyze the kunoichi in safety, only half her attention being spent on actual fighting.

The rest of her attention was spent on scrutinizing every facet of the Hyoton user, wanting to know more about the bloodline she held. How did it manifest? What were the physical signs of manifestation? What part of the genetic code was responsible for the manifestation?

Did she have to be alive for further examination?

Deciding to play it safe, she decided the last question was a 'no', and promptly went on the offensive. Haku's only warning sign was a small smile on Riful's face and a gleam in her brown eyes. In the moment before her death, she saw Riful's right arm unravel into the same ribbons she previously chalked up to a hair-manipulating technique or bloodline, and then the world went black for Haku, apprentice of Momochi Zabuza.

Paying no heed to the ending of a tragic life, Riful shifted back into her child form, a finger to her lip as she voiced her thoughts.

"I'm thirsty. I wonder if Tsunami-san has some good tea…"

* * *

With Naruto…

As soon as he touched down onto the ground, Zabuza began making hand seals, heedless of the kunai sticking out of his forearm.

"**Suiton: Mizu Gyoushuku (Water Element: Condensation of Water)**"

Much like the **Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden Mist Technique)**, the technique gathered water out of the air and condensed it. Unlike the **Kirigakure**, however, instead of leaving it as mist, it condensed it further, creating dew and small pools of water around the nuke-nin,

"A tactical technique…instead of wasting extra chakra on subsequent techniques pulling water out of the air, you instead use a technique to draw air into water which can be used for ensuing techniques. Interesting…"

The ashen-skinned man gave a sharp grin, bantering with his demonic opponent as he began sealing for his next technique.

"Never though I would be complimented by a demon, of all things."

The blonde shrugged his shoulders in a dismissive gesture, a faint smile on his lips as he pondered aloud, tweaking the nuke-nin's chakra system as he gathered chakra.

"I wonder if Suiton (Water Element) techniques can work on other liquids…?"

If Zabuza was baffled at the question, he didn't show it as he finished his technique.

"**Suiton: Ame no Sekichuu (Water Element: Rain of Spines)**"

The water gathered along the ground shot into the sky, forming into a globe that dispersed into hundreds of spikes, descending upon the blonde. Zabuza was apprehensive when the demon didn't move at all, but apprehension turned to shock as each of the spines, capable of piercing thin steel, fell around him without touching him once. Disregarding it for a moment, he utilized another technique.

"**Suiton: Nagare no Setsudan (Water Element: Cutting Current)**"

The water pooling around Naruto's feet came alive, rising upward in a torrent. The water was saturated with chakra, giving it cutting capability.

When the blonde appeared unharmed after the geyser of water had erupted underneath his feet, Zabuza began to fear foul play. The nuke-nin noticed that, while normally the geyser was a solid spout, there was a ring of untouched earth underneath the blonde's feet, showing that the water wasn't in a position to touch him. This confused Zabuza, as he was sure there was a puddle of water underneath Naruto's feet when he used the technique.

"What the hell _are _you?!"

The faint smile never left the blonde's lips as he walked leisurely forward. Zabuza, figuring that his opponent was blocking techniques due to seeing the hand seals, gathered his chakra in a Ram seal and used his high water affinity to manipulate the water around him. Unfortunately, this cost a lot of chakra to do.

Spears of water launched from the ground, attempting to impale the blonde, but they seemed to have been aimed wrong, hitting the ground around him without touching him. The nuke-nin jumped back, trying to put distance between him and Naruto as needles of water shot towards the blonde. Like the spears, they missed him by inches.

Deciding that ninjutsu was either sabotaged or impossible due to some demonic trickery, he engaged in taijutsu. Augmenting his body with chakra, he opened with a series of kicks and punches. Each one missed its mark, regardless of how he aimed them. Angered, he yelled at the amused blonde.

"Why won't you fight back?!"

Naruto, growing tired of the pointless fight, held up a single hand seal and answered the enraged, helpless shinobi.

"Because I find you amusing. However, you have lost my interest. **Hijutsu: Saisei no Hinan (Secret Technique: Condemnation of Rebirth)**"

He smiled, showing blackened, serrated needle teeth. Opening his mouth wider than humanly possible, he exhaled a miasma of noxious green. Zabuza, suspecting poison, refused to breathe, holding a hand over his nose and mouth and prepared to retreat.

That option was cut off when a foot, enhanced by demonic strength, planted itself firmly in his crotch.

The cheap shot caused him to gasp for breath, inhaling a deep breath of the miasma. He bent over, clutching at his groin in obvious pain, heedless of having just inhaled a possibly toxic substance.

Leaning over the incapacitated shinobi, Naruto made his request.

"So…those swords the Seven use…what can you tell me about them?"

Speaking in an octave higher than normal, the nuke-nin responded with difficulty.

"Not…gonna…tell…"

With a faint smile still on his lips, he leaned into Zabuza's line of sight, blue eyes sparking with green energy.

"Speak to save yourself from the agony of bearing a child. You are not the only one with knowledge of the swords. You are… expendable."

Channeling chakra to dull the pain in his happy place, Zabuza replied.

"Not going to tell. Swordsman's honor. I won't betray them."

The smile faded from Naruto's face, returning it to impassivity. He straightened and began to walk away, leaving Zabuza to his fate.

"You're no fun."

As the blonde walked off to meet with Riful, a tormented, agonizing scream broke the solitude of the forest.

* * *

At Tazuna's house…

The house was awake and busy when the two returned. The shinobi were packing up their supplies and weapons, checking over the house twice to make sure they gathered everything. It would not do for them to leave something behind that could allow a foreign shinobi to learn their secrets, after all.

Being busy with cleaning and packing - and influenced by not a small amount of tense nervousness from the day before - the shinobi could be excused from not wanting to check up on Naruto and Riful. That didn't excuse them from reaching for their weapons when the front door was opened, believing it to be a threat.

It also didn't excuse them from not immediately putting away the weapons once they realized it wasn't an enemy.

The fact that Riful and Naruto were juggling Haku's corpse between the two of them didn't help. It was a wonder that the body hadn't broken a bone yet with how they were handling it.

Taking notice of their company, they halted the hazardous game, with Naruto holding the corpse over his shoulder. Riful, her arms lacking an ornament, hoisted the Kubikiri Houcho (Head Chopping Cleaver) into her hands, positioning so that she could get through a doorway without it hitting something. Haku's body, after being cleaned of blood (and other bodily fluids released by the relaxation of all muscles upon death) had been clothed in a pink yukata.

The tense silence only escalated when nobody offered to speak.

Awkwardness was averted, however, when the smell of brewing tea came from the kitchen. The scent prompted Riful to toss the sword to Kakashi, bolting into the kitchen with an excited expression.

"Hold onto this, Kakashi-san. Tsunami-san, may I have a cup of tea?"

Neither Shizune nor Kakashi were able to figure out if they should be amused at her actions, or apprehensive over her nonexistent concern for safety.

They left after Riful had had her cup of tea.

* * *

Some time later…

It didn't take too long to return to Konoha, but the air was tense with unspoken questions and secrets. Kakashi and Sasuke were thinking long and hard about all their interactions with Riful, wondering how much of her strength they weren't aware of, while Shizune analyzed both child-like entities.

The two in question were remarkably unfazed by the heavy atmosphere.

There was a slight confusion at the gate when they had to present their identification, in which Naruto had to hand off the corpse so that he could rifle around in his pockets for the documentation. Both chuunin at the gate were stunned at the casual handling of a corpse, though they kept their questions to themselves.

* * *

Hokage's Office…

Sarutobi really couldn't help himself when Team 7 stepped forward to report.

He stared.

He regained his composure with only a minimal amount of staring, and cleared his throat in an obvious gesture for someone to begin their report.

Kakashi, as team leader, relayed a brief overview of their mission, setting the fully detailed written report atop one of the stacks of paperwork on the Hokage's desk. It took several minutes to recount the major points, and not once did the jounin take his eyes off his book, nor did his voice change from its lazy monotone.

"I have no idea where they got the corpse, though…"

A blatant hint for one of them to step forward and fill in the Hokage (not to mention their instructor) on where, exactly, they had gotten the corpse, and why, exactly, they had Zabuza's sword. Riful stepped up, as Naruto had 'borrowed' the Hokage's brush and inkstone when he wasn't looking, and was currently doodling on the corpse's face. Zabuza's sword was leaning innocently against the wall near the door.

Holding her hands together behind her back, she rocked back and forth on her heels as she gave her report.

"Well… I was curious about the swords… because I heard they were durable. On the bridge, I borrowed one to see if it'd break when I used it, and since it didn't, I went to go look for Zabuza-san to ask about them!"

The Hokage, bewildered and not a small amount disbelieving, echoed her last line with a few modifications.

"You, a _genin_, went _looking_ for an _A-rank nuke-nin _who had been a _jounin_ before he _attempted and almost killed the Mizukage_ so that you could _ask him about his sword_?"

The brunette nodded her head, responding slowly as if explaining to a small child.

"Yes. I was going to ask him about his sword. How else was I going to learn about it?"

Sarutobi pressed his fingertips to his temples, warding off the headache that was soon to appear.

"It's a miracle that he didn't kill you."

"He tried. We played 'The Game', and he lost. I won again!"

_That _got the entire room's attention, and Naruto looked up from his painting of a monocle.

"What's the score now, Riful?"

Without missing a beat, the girl replied to her fellow Abyssal One.

"Somewhere around four thousand three hundred and eighty two to zero, give or take a hundred. I reign supreme!"

The blonde simply gave an 'Mm' of assent, returning to his cadaver painting.

Thinking the girl was joking around, the Hokage humored her.

"Zabuza is dead? But where is his corpse, or his head?"

Naruto looked up at this, an amused look on his face.

"Zabuza-san's body is rather preoccupied at the moment. Giving birth takes a lot out of you. And your vital organs."

The Hokage, becoming quite tired of the roundabout answers to his questions, shifted into a stance, expression brooking no argument.

"Explain. Now."

Naruto and Riful, both with amused gleams in their eyes, alternated in their explanations. Riful spoke first, causing the Hokage to snap his attention to her.

"Naruto has this awesome ninjutsu that puts a parasite in someone's body…"

Naruto piped up next, using the brush in his hand as an instructional tool as if to illustrate his point.

"The parasite drains blood and nutrients from the target, taking as much as it needs or wants from the unwilling host. Like…say you have this friend…who comes over and eats all your food…and whenever you get more food, they keep eating it all. Even the barbeque sauce flavored ice cream."

Riful appeared to ponder that last point before continuing the explanation.

"Absolute bastards. By the time the parasite has taken all the nutrients and blood it needs, the body is barely functioning and definitely dying, so it then abandons the body. Violently."

The blonde nodded his assent to her first point, picking up the details.

"As if eating the ice cream wasn't enough, they evacuate the body by ripping through flesh, bone, and cartilage. And the last thing the victim hears is the parasite's cry of glee as it enters the world."

Riful grasped his hands, pulling him close to her and causing him to drop the brush he was holding. Following her lead, he spun them around in a parody of ballroom dancing as they attempted to mimic the supposed 'cry of glee'. Given that they had the ability all youma have of 'adjusting' parts of their anatomy, they were able to hit the high note they needed.

"**SCREEEEEEEE**!"

All occupants of the room winced and covered their ears, the glass windows shuddering as the high note vibrated close to their shattering frequency.

The two childlike beings halted their dance, looking towards their Hokage as the blonde finished his 'report'.

"So Zabuza-san's corpse looks more like a mummy shoved into a food processor than anything else…I doubt his head survived. On a brighter note, I have a loyal parasite for a pet!"

This point, apparently, was something to consider, as his face fell into a speculative look. A moment later, he brightened marginally, turning to Riful with an excited gleam in his eyes.

"Maybe we can breed it with Tonton!"

The female Abyssal One perked up at the possibilities, and the two were out of the office before someone could object. The corpse and sword were taken with them.

Sarutobi rubbed at his aching ears, casting a disbelieving look at Kakashi. Reluctant to pursue the strange behavior of the two genin, he dismissed the rest of the team with a wave of his hand.

Rubbing at his aching temples, the Hokage could only ponder on the attitudes of the two genin.

'_They're going to drive me to drink more than Jiraiya ever did.'_

_

* * *

_With Naruto and Riful…

As it was nearing 'lunch-time' for humans, the two decided to try to find Tsunade. Heedless of the disconcerted and downright disgusted glances the civilians and even ninja shot them, they searched high and low for the buxom blonde. The glances, oddly enough, had nothing to do with them, but rather for the fact that they were dragging around a corpse like it was a parcel they had to deliver.

They soon found her staring contemplatively into her mug of coffee at a local café, a half eaten sandwich lying in front of her on a plate.

Sneaking their way up to her, which was made easy by her focus being elsewhere, they propped Haku's corpse up on the chair on the opposite side of the table from her. Tsunade eyed the corpse with a medic's trained eye for several seconds before she spoke to Riful.

"I give up. Male or female?"

Riful's eyes crinkled up into a smile.

"Female. We had to rely on smell to figure it out."

Naruto gazed speculatively at the corpse, noting the peaceful, pale expression on her face. He turned to direct his gaze at Tsunade, as if sizing her up, speaking as he came to a conclusion. His voice had a warning tone, but his eyes belied his words with amusement.

"Be careful. She knew kung-fu."

The slug summoner raised a blonde brow, playing along as she raked her vision across the corpse, sizing it up as an opponent.

"She may have. However. I…know karate."

Riful looked between the corpse and the sannin, expression analytical.

"This confrontation will be written about for eons to come, children will hear it as only legend. Statues will be built in the victor's appearance, holidays arranged, and mass marketing of merchandise sold."

Tsunade broke her serious performance, snickering at the brunette's statement. She grabbed both 'children' into a bear hug, in good spirits that they came back from their mission unharmed.

"So, how was your C-rank? I'm off for the rest of the day."

Riful shoved the corpse out of the seat, taking its place, paying no attention to the dull thump as it hit the floor. Naruto picked it up and frowned faintly.

The fall had smudged Haku's realistic moustache and goatee.

He pouted.

"Our C-rank actually turned out to be higher than we thought…"

He tuned out Riful as he borrowed 'artistic implements' from the counter and began fixing his 'soiled artwork'.

* * *

It took several hours to finish the entire story of their first C-rank mission, and by that time they had vacated the café, gone to the hospital's medical lab, and were already working on analyzing the corpse of Haku.

Naruto, not sharing his companions' love for bloodlines and how they work, exited when they started to get a gleam in their eyes. The sort of gleam normally found in those who have found something very important, and that they will take great glee in dissecting it into its component parts.

Riful, assisting on her first ever medic-nin autopsy, was astounded at what ninja could do with their chakra. Not only was it good for offense, defense, and movement…but it was quite capable when it came to scanning things, as well. According to Tsunade, it would take time and practice to learn to decipher what the strange information was that she gleaned from the technique.

It was not as if it wrote the words out in her mind at what she wanted to know. Instead, she felt sensations through the minute fluctuations of the technique as she scanned things on the body. A prickle of energy when examining the chakra system meant something, but she wasn't sure what. As did a tingling feeling in her palm, much like the after effect of a slap, when she was analyzing the bone structure.

She didn't dare to interrupt Tsunade to ask what it was, though. The woman had an expression on her face that terrified many a lesser man.

She was in research _heaven_. The users of Hyoton (Ice Element) were extremely rare and any corpse of one was normally disposed of with extreme measures. This wasn't too special, as many of the other dying clans with well known bloodlines did the same, not wishing for anyone to learn the secrets of their craft, hoping to take them to their grave. Bodies were often burned, and their ashes scattered to the wind or poured into a fast moving river.

To have a body, mostly intact (though there was a single wound; a thin stab wound that slipped between the ribs and through the heart to exit the back) in the beginning of its prime, and to have inherited the bloodline so _beautifully_…

The only comparison would be if her teammate, Jiraiya, had found his way into a Lesbian Exhibitionist Fetish Festival.

Oh, the _research_! So much is possible!

* * *

Far off in an underground cavern somewhere, Orochimaru felt as if his female teammate had gained something that he had desired for many years. Knowing not to discount these feelings, he ticked off the few list of ambitions that he and his medic teammate had in common.

'_Immortality, eternal youth…close enough. A body to kill for, breasts to kill for…similar. Learning every technique including bloodlines, researching…every…bloodline…'_

The serpentine male's face shifted into a dangerously impassive expression.

* * *

In another room within the cavern-base, Yakushi Kabuto shivered. After working for so long with Orochimaru, he had gained an extra sense, one which had saved his life many times.

He had to leave. Now. A short vacation wouldn't hurt.

Someone had beaten Orochimaru to one of his goals.

There was nothing more dangerous than a Sannin Temper Tantrum.

* * *

Tsunade stopped mid-technique, a bizarre manic expression on her face.

She had felt it. Her snake-using teammate was throwing a fit, because _she got a bloodline corpse _and _he did not_.

Anyone within earshot shuddered at the gleeful cackling coming from one of the medical labs.

After all, even though there was enough bad blood between them to float a boat, it didn't mean that former teammates didn't revel in mocking each other.

For better or for worse, they were family, albeit broken and estranged.

And if a small village out in Ta no Kuni (Land of Rice) had been snuffed out in a bizarre 'accident', well…it just meant that she knew that he knew what had occurred.

She'd be sure to update the scoreboard.


End file.
